The Name of the Star
by valleyoftheissy
Summary: Ophelia Vander Wende has aspirations in her life. She wants to be more than just another pureblood house wife, and with Sirius, she feels like she really could be more.
1. Mrs Peter Pettigrew

**Notes: **Alright so, first Harry Potter story. Hopefully I can capture the personalities of Sirius and the Marauders. I'm doing my best with research. I check out the details that I'm not totally sure about. Anything that seems off let me know.

I am not against constructive criticism. Don't be a jerk about it though, I take the notes seriously and try to make myself a better writer.

**Part One  
The Chase**

**Chapter One  
Mrs. Peter Pettigrew**

"Sirius, over here!" James yelled out to his best friend. Sirius Black laughed and tossed the notebook over the greasy head of Severus Snape and into the waiting hands of James Potter.

"Give it back." The Slytherin boy snarled at his tormentors. James just grinned and tossed it back to Sirius, who opened it up, dancing away from Severus as he attempted to get his notebook back.

"Dear Diary," Sirius pretended to read, "day three hundred and twelve without touching shampoo. My hair is starting to resemble a puddle of oil. I resolve to not wash it until I pop my cherry." Sirius closed the notebook and threw it to James again.

"Looks like you'll be saving a lot of money on soap Snivelly. What woman would want to touch you," James cut off as the book was snatched from his hand. Behind him stood a red haired teenager with a sour look on her face.

"That's not funny." Lily Evans held the notebook out to Severus, who snatched it from her, stalking off without a thank you

"Lighten up Evans, it was a joke." Sirius sauntered back to the tree, where they had left Remus and Peter.

"No, Sirius, it was the two of you bullying Severus again. Why can't you two just grow up?" Lily asked.

"Well James can't, not when you have him by the balls." James shoved his best friend as soon as he said it and Sirius just laughed. "Everyone is so touchy." He plopped down in the grass next to Remus, who has reading his transfiguration textbook. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Really Remus, I would think, as a prefect, you would do something about this."

"Yeah Remus, detention us to death." James managed to say, sitting down as he attempted to regain his usual cocky manner. Something about Lily just threw him off his game.

"Shut up." Remus had been prefect for all of a month and hadn't heard the end of it. The tips of his ears turned light pink and he kept his eyes glued to his book. Lily let out a disgusted sigh and walked away, leaving the four boys alone.

"Smooth James, you'll have her eating out of the palm of your hand in about sixty years, when she's too senile to remember who you are." Sirius tried to move out of the way, but James's fist connected with his arm. "So violent." Sirius rubbed where he'd been hit. Peter watched the two of them with big eyes. He took in every movement, later, when he was alone, he would practice that, wanting to look as smooth and carefree as his friends.

"You don't know what it's like." James shook his head. "One day she will be Lily Potter."

"You just have to have a conversation that doesn't end with," Sirius mimicked Lily's disgusted sigh. "Sometimes I think she mistakes it for your name." James gave his friend a dirty look and pulled hi stolen snitch from his pocket.

"In the meantime, there are plenty of girls willing to try for the Mrs. Potter position." He smirked, looking over at a group of Ravenclaw girls who were eyeing them.

"James, I'm supposed to be the dog." Sirius smirked, referring to their current secret project. They had decided they weren't doing enough with their lives. They wanted to be extraordinary and this project would be the first of many that would be sure to get their names in the history books. Of course the real reason behind their experiments was Remus, but, being fifteen year old boys, they claimed it was so they would be special, not because of any emotional support.

"Nonsense Black, both of you do a fine job of dogging around." James and Sirius fell silent, their gaze moving to the girl walking by them.

"Maybe, but no one does it quite like I do." Sirius replied to Ophelia Vander Wende as she slowed a bit.

"You certainly won't get an argument from me." Ophelia shook her head and kept walking. Sirius scrambled to stand up, following the blonde.

"Of course you wouldn't truly know, not until you agree to a date." Sirius walked alongside her.

"Ignorance is bliss." Ophelia didn't turn to look at him.

"You and I both know you don't really believe that."

"You have no idea what I believe. Now go before I have you jumped for stalking me." It was well known that Ophelia's four older brothers were quick to go after anyone that upset their baby sister.

"One day Vander Wende, you can't turn me down forever."

"I bet I can.' Ophelia called back. Sirius smirked, watching her walk away before heading back to his friends.

"Lily may have me by the balls, but Ophelia Vander Wende has yours." James commented.

"Hardly," Sirius looked over at his best friend lazily, "There will probably never be a Mrs. Sirius Black and if there is, Ophelia certainly won't be it. My parents would approve of her, and I simply cannot do anything they would approve of."

"She could be Mrs. Peter Pettigrew."

"Shut up Peter."

"Are you listening to me?" The seventeen year old boy asked his sister, who was staring at him blankly.

"Not even a little." Ophelia answered. She looked past him to the Gryffindor table, where Sirius and his band of merry men were being as loud and obnoxious as they always were. Adrian snapped his fingers to get his sister's attention and she whipped her head around to look at him. "I am not a dog Adrian, do not snap at me."

"Well, let me know when you're done ogling Sirius Black and then I will tell you about the package mum sent."

"Bullocks, mum didn't send a package." Ophelia challenged. "Maybe the house elf did."

"Such lovely young language, You're really making our family proud." Adrian said drily, taking a bite of the chicken that had been served for dinner. "The house elf probably did send it, but it would have been under mum's orders."

"And I repeat: bullocks." Ophelia ate her last bite of potatoes and got up. "I have homework to do."

"Why bother?" Severus asked darkly, his potions book open in front of him. "You're just going to end up a trophy wife like the rest of these girls." Ophelia glared at him, reaching over and flicking his book shut, knowing the ink from his newest note wouldn't have had time to dry. Severus looked up, furious, but she was already walking towards the doors. Adrian just shook his head and continued to eat.

Ophelia made her way down to the Slytherin common room, heading up to the sixth year boys dorms, she walked in, ignoring the only boy in the room, she grabbed the package off her brother's bed and took it down to the common room. She tried to shake off the inevitable chill of the Slytherin dungeon. The rooms were heated, of course, but there was just a constant chill to the room. Rumors flew around that it was because of vengeful student spirits, or from the combined ice in the hearts of all Slytherins. Honestly it was probably just because they were underground and surrounded by stone. Ophelia sat on the couch and crossed her legs, opening the box. There were three smaller packages inside, one was already opened, and she left that alone, but picked up the one with an O on the top. The third one, the N package, was for Nikolas; he apparently hadn't made it back to the dorms yet. She opened the small package, finding the usual inside, a few sweets and more money. She looked at Adrian's package, he'd gotten more sweets, of course he didn't have to watch his figure. He didn't have a ball gown to fit into for the winter ball season. She took two of the candies from Adrian's 'care package' and then put it back with Nik's and carried the lot back up to the boy's dorm.

Once she was safe from prying eyes, behind the thick curtains of her four poster bed, Ophelia unwrapped a candy and held it up to her mouth. Halfway there, she stopped and let out a sigh, wrapping it back up. Adrian may not have had a gown to fit into… but she did.

"Mr. Potter, do you know the answer?" Professor Binns floated around the room, droning on about history. His attention momentarily torn from his lecture, and on the four boys in the back of the room, whispering. They quickly sat up, Sirius flipping over his parchment to hide whatever they had been writing.

"No sir." James answered

"Mr. Lupin?"

"1864." Remus answered. As usual, he had very detailed note, getting down everything the teacher said, even as he was talking to his friends about their second project. This one he could have more of a part in at least. Binns nodded at his answer and turned back around to go back to his lecture, and the boys went back to whispering. Ophelia glanced over at them, curious, but quickly looked away.

Ophelia had known Sirius since they were kids. Her mum and his were… kind of friends. She'd also known James, but not as well. Silas Vander Wende and James's father were about as close as Adelaide was to Walburga. Of course, she hadn't known Peter or Remus until their first year in school. He'd been in the same boat as Remus. She'd thought of him as a skinny kid who needed to get more sun. She hadn't even realized Peter existed until he started hanging out with Sirius and James. Of course no one had really known Peter existed. She glanced back over at the paper, trying to get a good look at it, but Sirius's hand moved to cover it up. She looked up at his face, blushing lightly when she realized she'd been caught.

Professor Binns released them to go to their next class and she hurried to gather her stuff. She thought she was free but Sirius appeared in front of her, blocking her way out.

"I like it when you stare at me, Ophelia."

"You would, wouldn't you?" She tried to move past him but he just stepped in her way.

"If you want to know what we're doing, all you have to do is ask."

"Would you tell me the truth?" She asked him

"No, I wouldn't, but you could still ask." He smiled, a smile that would turn most girls' knees to jelly, Ophelia gripped the table top to keep her knees solid and stepped around him.

"Black, the only thing that could leave me interested in you and your friends is an hour with Professor Binns. That hour is over and so is my interest. Sorry I'm not sorry." She quickly turned and walked out of the room, refusing to look back at him

Ophelia Vander Wende may have found Sirius as attractive as everyone else did, but she refused to join his list of exes.


	2. Sirius Black's Harem

**Notes: **Awesome! I didn't get any reviews but I got favorited and a couple follows, so that's cool. I'm just as excited for those. Anyway, I hope the people reading this enjoy it. Also, what's the difference between a visit and a view? It's been a while since I've been on the site and I have no idea.

**Chapter Two  
Sirius Black's Harem**

"Alright class, now we're going to learn to make," Professor Slughorn was cut off by a small explosion and the laughter of two teenage boys. "Mr. Potter, Mr. Black." He turned his gaze to the boys, who were waving away smoke from their table. Slughorn looked around the room. "Potter, work with Snape. Black, you're with Vander Wende. Mr. Pettigrew, please return to your seat before I have to split you and Mr. Lupin up as well." Peter hurried back to his table, sliding on the stool.

"Did you get it?" James whispered. Peter nodded vigorously and slipped the book he'd taken from the teacher's bookcase, into his bag.

"Professor Slughorn, may I request a new partner?" Ophelia asked as Severus gathered his things, his pale face even paler. She liked working with Snape… mostly because he was amazing with potions and would do all the work for her. She tried to help once, they quickly realized that they'd get a better grade if she just pretended to work and he actually did everything.

"You can request it, but you will be denied. Severus, get into place beside Potter and I'll get you new ingredients." Slughorn went to the supply cupboard and Sirius took his new place next to Ophelia.

"It's like it's meant to be." He smiled.

"the world can't be that cruel." Ophelia rested her chin in her hand and looked over at him. Sirius chuckled and looked up at what Slughorn had written on the board.

"Let's get to work." He said, grabbing the first ingredient. "You start chopping."

"Chopping?" She asked, her blue eyes gazing down at the table, she hadn't touched a potion ingredient since second year when she traded Delilah Smythe for Severus as her potions partner.

"Yes Ophelia, Chopping, that's when you pick up that knife there and that bit of root, there, and you cut it up. You have one of the best grades in the class how do you not- Snivelly." Sirius rolled his eyes. "Well I'm not Snivelly… thank god, and you're going to have to do your share of the work. Now pick up the knife and get to work." Ophelia reached out, taking the chunk of root and made a face.

"You're not serious… and I swear if you make that stupid pun with your name again, I'll stab you in the eye with this." She picked up the knife, sneaking a peek at Remus and Peter's table, Remus was carefully cutting up the root. She just copied him. It took a bit of time, but she got it chopped up neatly.

"There you go, see, that wasn't too hard. Sometimes you're almost more than a pretty face."

"I'm still holding the knife Black; it's not too late to stab you." Ophelia warned. Sirius reached out, carefully plucking the knife from her fingers and sitting it down on his side of the table.

"There, now you'd have to maim me with your bare hands." He nodded and went back to work. "Next you're going to measure out the Grimwart Powder."

"Ew."

"What?"

"It just sounds gross." She shrugged and picked out the little bag labeled 'Grimwart' and measured it out, adding it to the cauldron. After half an hour they had started stirring the mix. She got up on her tip toes to look into the pot, a small smile on her face.

"See? It's so much more fun when you actually do the work." Sirius said. James and Severus were up front, arguing about the work.

"Grimwart wasn't as disgusting as I thought it was going to be." She admitted. "But the potion does smell like rotten eggs."

"Like you've ever smelled a rotten egg in your life, you've probably never even touched an egg."

"I have so." Ophelia argued. "Once… I went to the kitchens to get a snack because the House elves weren't answering my calls." Sirius shook his head and kept stirring.

"You are so… Pureblood." He said. Ophelia looked thoughtful, unsure of what to say to that. She normally didn't think of the term as an insult… but she knew how he felt about purebloods. His own feuds with his family were well known in their circles. Walburga was forever lamenting to Adelaide about how she ended up with one monster son and one angel. The angel, of course, was Regulus.

"Mr. Black, Miss Vander Wende, I should change up the partner arrangement more often, you're doing great." Slughorn commented, looking into the cauldron. "And for once I actually see ingredients on your side of the table." He looked at Ophelia, who shrugged, picking at the nail polish on her right pinky nail. It had chipped while she was cutting up the root. By the end of class they had made the potion successfully. Ophelia packed up her things, hefting her bag over her shoulder.

"Ophelia." Sirius hurried after her. She stopped and turned to look at him.

"What?"

"Look at that, we've hit a new milestone in the relationship, you actually stopped to talk to me, instead of ignoring me and walking on." He smiled. She rolled her eyes and turned on her heel to walk away. "Oh come on, I was joking." He insisted.

"The funny thing about you joking, often times it feels like you really mean it." She looked back at him, not stopping. He groaned and followed her.

"Come on Phe, there is no reason to act like that. I just helped you with Potions."

"You were my partner. If you hadn't helped, you'd have failed too."

"Never bothered me before." Sirius moved in front of her.

"Oh good I was missing this game." She placed her hands on her hips. "I have to get to class."

"Yeah, I'm sure you're really worried about getting to class on time." He rolled his eyes. "We're going to Hogsmeade this weekend, have a butterbeer with Me."

"Sirius…" She sighed.

"Come on, what could it really hurt?" he asked. "You get a free butterbeer out of the deal."

"Fine, one butterbeer and the second you make me mad, I leave. Now can I go?" He smiled and stepped out of the way.

"Of course." He grinned from ear to ear. "I look forward to our weekend."

"It's not our weekend. It'll be an hour at the most." Ophelia stepped around him. "Don't make it out to be more than it is. I swear if I hear one rumor about me joining the Sirius Black Harem,"

"Naw, you wouldn't make it in the harem. Those girls are pretty cut-throat." Sirius smiled. Ophelia rolled her eyes and walked down the hall, trying to suppress a smile.

* * *

"You did not."

"I did." Sirius stood triumphantly in front of his friends after announcing that he got Ophelia Vander Wende to agree to a date. Well, he'd amended, a drink. He didn't want it to get back to her that he was calling it a date because he had a feeling she wasn't kidding about standing him up if she felt he was being a braggart about it or whatever it was she'd said before. He usually spaced out when people were talking.

"There's no way, she despises the ground you walk on."

"Well I guess she'll just have to avoid walking behind me while we're on our date."

"Your drink." Remus corrected. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Whatever." He sat back down on Peter's bed and watched Remus as he read through the book. "So what does it say?"

"That this is extremely dangerous and stupid."

"When he said it, I think he meant the book, not you." James looked up from his own work. "We know you're against it. You know we're ignoring that you are against it, so let the two cancel each other out and tell us how to start trying to transform." They had all agreed to the idea of becoming animagi, so they could go running with Remus once a month. They had all started trying and had a general idea of the kind of animal they wanted to become. James was going to be a stag, Sirius a large dog and Peter was going to be a rat. They needed two big and one small, the big to help control Remus as a wolf, and the small because they needed a way to get the whomping willow to stop. Remus told them about the trick to it.

Remus sighed heavily, regretting ever telling them. Well they had figured it out on their own, but he had confirmed it and then they got this stupid idea in their heads. They didn't understand how terrified he was. He was sure that he was going to end up tearing them apart. He was learning to control his wolf but the very idea of accidently hurting them…

"It says you need to practice every night. It will start out painful but as you get use to it the pain will stop and the transformation will happen faster." He looked up at them, at Peter, hoping the threat of pain would make him rethink his position. Peter looked uncomfortable, but kept his mouth shut. Apparently James and Sirius had been rubbing off on him.

"alright, so every night we practice."

"Homework is going to be impossible. Between mapping out the school and practicing becoming a rat,"

"Then don't do it." Sirius shrugged. "But if you don't then you can't go with us during full moons and you can't use the map." He looked at Peter, knowing the boy hated being left out. Peter stopped whining and sighed, knowing there really was no way for him to win. It was better that he get a few bad grades than lose his friends. Sirius nodded in approval when he didn't open his mouth again and turned his attention back to Remus, who continued to read to them from the book, telling them how to break the law and become unregistered Animagi


	3. Just One Drink

**Notes**: So, I know it's not typical, but I'm going to try and stick to the canon of the 70's, seeing as the marauders were in school in the 70's and this is set in 1975. Really the only place it will come out is in the clothes. I don't know a lot of 70's slang or anything like that.

**Chapter Three  
Just One Drink**

"Did a clothes shop explode?" Beatrice Mason walked into the dorm room, seeing clothes all over the room. Ophelia walked over to the mirror, looking over at Beatrice.

"I'm cleaning out my wardrobe. I'm going to get my parents to send me more winter appropriate clothes." She lied as she looked at herself in the mirror. In all honesty she was looking for an outfit to wear to Hogsmeade. She wanted something that looked good, but not like she was trying too hard. Last thing she needed was for Sirius Black to think she was trying to impress him.

"Are you?" She asked, walking over. "Then do you mind if I take some things?"

"If you think your arse could fit in them, go for it." Ophelia figured she could just re-purchase anything Beatrice took that she actually liked. But apparently her arse comment worked, Beatrice went to sit on her own bed, not touching anything. Ophelia sighed and went about picking up the mess she'd made, just tossing the clothes onto the bed. "None of these works." She muttered then went back to look at more clothes. She packed as much as she could into her closet space. She shrunk her clothes down to fit them into the trunk for transport.

"Works for what?" Beatrice asked, looking up at her.

"Nothing, why are you here?"

"This is my dorm too." Beatrice pulled out her magazine and flipped through it. Ophelia rolled her eyes, going to change again. This time she came out in a brown suede mini skirt and a white pheasant top. She smiled and nodded. This was more like it. "Do you have a date this weekend?" Beatrice asked.

"No." Ophelia insisted. "Just… going for a drink, one drink, nothing else." She shook her head and smoothed down the skirt. This was the outfit, for sure. She changed back into her original clothes so she wouldn't mess up the outfit that had taken her two hours to pick out. She hated that she cared so much about what he thought. But the truth was she did care, a lot. She wanted Sirius Black to want her.

"Yeah right, just a drink." Beatrice shook her head "And who are you having this drink with?"

"No one special." Ophelia answered, pulling her shirt back on and shoving the discarded clothes back into the trunk.

"No… No, there is no way." Beatrice tossed away her magazine. "You finally agreed to go out with Black, didn't you?" Ophelia turned to look at her. "Ophelia Vander Wende, I am the closest thing you have to a friend, you can't hide that from me." She grinned. "Your mum is going to have a heart attack." Beatrice laughed.

"Shut up." Ophelia threw a sock over at the other girl. Beatrice just laughed harder. Ophelia plopped down onto her bed and looked over at her best friend. "This is a stupid idea isn't it? I shouldn't have given in. I know how it's going to end." She sighed and closed her eyes, burying her face in her pillows.

"You're not the first girl to fall for Sirius Black's charms and I can promise you that you won't be the last." Beatrice went to pick up her magazine, putting it back with the rest of her stuff. "So is he taking you to Hogs Head?"

"No, god no. I have class Beatrice. The Hogs Head is disgusting." Ophelia made a face and looked back up at her. "Granted, people will see me with him if we go to the Three Broomsticks." She looked thoughtful. "Nope, I honestly would rather be seen talking to Sirius Black, in public, than go to the Hogs Head and end up drugged and raped or something. "

"Are you sure?" Beatrice asked. "Sirius Black could do a lot of damage to your oh so spotless reputation." Ophelia shook her hand and threw her pillow at Beatrice, who laughed and threw it back

* * *

"This is a bad idea." Ophelia muttered for the five millionth time. She paced back and forth, trying to talk herself into leaving. She was supposed to meet Sirius at The Three Broomsticks and she was running late. "Alright, you are Ophelia Vander Wende." She said to herself. "Who cares what people think? And you don't have a heart for Sirius Black to break." She squared her shoulders and walked out. She wasn't going to let anything stop her from going to Hogsmeade, they rarely got to go outside o the castle grounds and she wasn't going to let possible rumors keep her from going.

"And here I thought you weren't going to make it." Sirius said from his spot in the booth. He had honestly thought he was being stood up when she finally walked in. Ophelia turned her head to look at him and slid into the seat across from him.

"I was held up." She shrugged, not apologizing. She rested her elbows on the table and looked at him

"It happens." He smirked. "you made it, and that's what counts. I ordered you a butterbeer."

"Thanks." She reached out and took it. "So, now that I've gone for a drink with you, does that mean you're going to leave me alone?" She asked him

"Not at all." He smiled his charming smile. The one that made him look eerily like his father. "if anything it's going to get worse. Now I know I can break you down."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why me? There are a thousand girls falling over themselves to get a date with you. And yet you want one of the few that don't show you the slightest bit of attention?" She took a drink of her butterbeer.

"Because, those girls don't want to date me, they want to date Sirius Black, the one they think they know. They want to date a guy who will sweep them off their feet, make their friends jealous. You, on the other hand, you're the first girl who honestly asked me to find a booth that's hidden from view. You're not here because you want people to see you with Sirius Black. You're here because you want to be." He explained. She thought about that, why did she want to be here.

"That's the problem with being well known, isn't it?" She asked, looking at him. "I almost didn't come here today because of your reputation." She informed him.

"Which part of it?" He asked curiously.

"A few. The first being that you're known as a player and I am not going to be another notch in your head board, belt, broom handle or whatever odd object you keep your notches on."

"I don't' have notches." Sirius smiled.

"You lie." Ophelia accused,

"I have a book." He admitted.

"You don't. Oh god, tell me you're joking."

"I'm not joking." He shook his head. "I have a book in my room where I keep copious notes about each girl."

"I'm disgusted." She downed her butterbeer. "But at the same time… I really want to see it." She made a face.

"Nope, it's for my eyes only. I am not a total braggart, usually." He finished his and motioned for the waitress to bring two more.

"I said a drink, as in one." Ophelia reminded him

"Then leave." He shrugged. "I'm not going to make you stay." She stared at him a moment, trying to decide if he was serious. She took the butterbeer that was brought to her and took a drink.

"Maybe one more." She decided.

* * *

Four drinks later they walked out of the Three Broomsticks together, laughing at some story Sirius had been telling her.

"You're so full of it." Ophelia shook her head. "There's no way that's true."

"It's completely true." Sirius insisted. "Regulus was stuck in that closet for three hours before mum came home and managed to un-junx the lock. I got the beating of my life all because of a spell I didn't know I had cast."

"I just… I can so picture Regulus sobbing because he's stuck in a closet." Ophelia grinned. "Alright, what else do you have up your sleeve to try and impress me?" She asked.

"I can get us into the Shrieking Shack." He replied.

"Liar."

"We've been through this. I'm not lying. I can get us in there."

"And why would I want to break into a haunted house?"

"Because it's not haunted, that's a stupid rumor." Sirius replied. "Come on Phe, you know you want to know what's in there."

"Dusty, moldy furniture." She shook her head.

"Do you really think the house would be of any interest to anyone if it were full of nothing but dusty old furniture?" He asked her. She bit her lip, looking in the direction of the house.

"Fine," She smirked, "but if we get caught, you're kidnapping me and taking me there against my will."

"Only if I get to tie you up." He licked his bottom lip and she rolled her eyes, turning and walking away, towards the Shrieking Shack. He laughed and hurried after her. "You might regret deciding to wear a skirt." He warned.

"Why?"

* * *

She got her answer a few minutes later as they were climbing up the tree to get over the fence. She made him go up first, and then she followed him up. He dropped down to the other side and she dropped next to him, proud that she avoided twisting her ankle in her boots. She then fixed her skirt, tugging it back down into place.

"No problem." She said proudly.

"You're not getting any complaints from me." Sirius replied. She smacked his arm and he laughed. "Seriously, why hit me?"

"Because you're a pig." She answered

"A dog." He corrected and headed in the direction of the shack. They walked around the side and he pointed to an open window. He climbed in and she slipped in after him. It was a dusty room filled with old, moldy furniture.

"This isn't worth the climb Sirius." She informed him.

"Patience." He walked to the door and opened it up, walking out into the hall, leading her up a set of seemingly rickety stairs. But when she put her foot down on the first one it was shockingly sturdy, same with the rest of the stairs going up.

"Still not cool." She shook her head.

"Have you ever wondered what causes the Shrieking?"

"Ghost."

"No ghosts." He smiled.

"Alright, you're so smart, what is it?" Ophelia asked

"Werewolves." He gave her a wicked grin.

"You're not funny." She shook her head.

"Look at this." He took her hand and led her off to a smallish room. It was an old bedroom, with moth eaten curtains hanging around the beaten up four poster bed. Nothing extraordinary about that, until she really looked around the room. There were deep gouges in the walls, the bed, the dusty duvet was slashed to ribbons and the curtain rod was bent in the middle.

"No… you must have found some way to do this." Ophelia backed towards the door.

"Werewolves, Ophelia, it's not a trick." He ran his fingers over one of the sets of gashes. Ophelia turned and hurried out of the room, going into the next one. This was set up like a hang out, books and magazines were piled up and there was a deck of cards set out on the table. This was also the cleanest room in the shack.

"Wow, they sure like the keep that werewolf entertained." She turned to look at Sirius. "You're a jerk."

"What? Why?"

"Trying to scare me with that werewolf story, when it's obviously you and your stupid friends." She moved past him.

"I wasn't trying to scare you." He insisted, following her. "I thought you would be interested, and there really are werewolves, well, a werewolf." He knew Remus was the only one that used the shack.

"Stop talking." She found the room with the open window and climbed out. Sirius followed her, watching as she tried to find a way back over the fence.

"You can just use the gate." He informed her.

"Then why did we climb first?" She asked, she saw his guilty glance to her skirt and she groaned. "You, Sirius Black, are just as awful as the stories say you are." She declared, walking out of the gate and leaving him there alone.


	4. Two Steps Back

**Note: **Writing this while watching food network... we'll see how what that does to the chapter. Not really a lot to say, I have to go to the dentist soon, lame. I got my first review! Thank you very much, I was very excited to see that.

**kind of useless disclaimer: **In case you didn't know, the only part of this story that I own is Ophelia, her family and the plot. Really, I am not JK Rowling, for those of you that thought I might be (sarcasm)

**Chapter Four  
Two Steps Back**

"Why? Why would you take her there?" Remus asked, not hiding the horror in his voice.

"It was three in the afternoon." Sirius shrugged. "And not even near a full moon. It's not like we were in any kind of danger."

"What if she had figured out it was me? I don't want anyone else to know about,"

"Your furry little problem?" Sirius grinned

"It's not funny Sirius." Remus insisted.

"You're right." Sirius nodded. "It's not and it's not like It did me any good. And she didn't believe me. She thought I was trying to scare her."

"Well I can see why." Peter said. "I mean, one of her biggest fears right? I heard she was attacked by one as a kid or something."

"What?" Sirius stopped and looked at Peter. "Where did you hear that?" Peter shrugged.

"Around school somewhere, we had been talking about Boggarts I think, and someone brought up Ophelia and werewolves. But isn't that what you were trying to do? Scare her?"

"No, not at all."

"He was trying to show off. Show her that he could get her in and that he had knowledge of the mystery that surrounds the Shack." Remus piped up.

"Well I didn't know she was afraid of them. I don't think she was attacked though. I would remember hearing about that. And there's no way I wouldn't have known right after it happened." Sirius shook his head. His mum couldn't keep a secret, especially something like that.

"Well… did the showing off work?" Peter asked.

"Not in the least." Sirius answered. "She hates me more than ever, hey, where's James?" He was done talking about his failed date.

"Either following Lily around or working on the map."

"Doesn't the mapping generally require two people?" Sirius asked Remus.

"It makes it easier, but you know James wouldn't listen to that." Remus replied. Just then, the door opened and James walked in, his robes scorched and an angry look on his face.

"What the hell Potter?" Sirius sat up, looking at his best friend.

"Snivelly and I got in a duel." He answered. "You should see him." The three others knew that Snape was probably just as bad off. Snape was great with hexes, almost as good as he was with potions, but James was faster, he had his Seeker reflexes and coordination. And he had been trying to impress Lily, not that it worked. For some reason, she had a weird bond to the greasy haired Slytherin.

"That rat." Sirius growled.

"Relax Sirius." James grinned. "We're going to get him back."

"You have a plan?" Sirius asked.

"Of course, when have you known me to not have a plan?" James asked.

"Run in blindly and hope for the best doesn't could as a plan." Remus closed his book and picked up the next one in the pile.

"It's worked for me so far." James shrugged. "So have you found anything new?"

"No, they're all saying basically the same thing. Practice, concentration, things the two of you aren't really known for. At this point it's looking like Peter might be the most likely to do it." The boy perked up at hearing that. He liked the idea of being better at James and Sirius at something. Seeing as it had never happened before. The two older boys just laughed.

"Yeah, that's something I would pay to see." Sirius leaned back on his bed. Peter's grin fell and he hunched back over the homework he was trying to do.

"So Sirius, I hear Nik and Adrian Vander Wende are looking for you." James changed out of his ruined robes and plopped onto his bed.

"Oh good; I was just thinking I needed two goods hunting me down."

"You know I have you back." James reached over and high fived Sirius, who grinned.

"It's been too long since you and I had a good fight." He nodded. He and James had gotten into a fist fight with a couple of boys over the summer, but that was the last time, because he didn't count little scuffles with Snivelly as a real fight. Remus rolled his eyes and went back to reading while Peter watched the two with shining eyes, wishing they'd invite him to join in on the fight. Not that Peter had ever been in a fight in his life. Whenever someone tried to mess with him, Sirius and James would jump in and defend him. Because even if they were mean to him sometimes, he was their friend and they wouldn't put up with anyone messing with their friends.

"I guess they found out about your trip to the Shack." Peter spoke up. Remus's eyes widened and he looked over at Sirius.

"Relax Remus. They're looking for me, not you. The lynch mobs are not forming."

"Still not funny Sirius." Remus said, putting the book down and walking out of the room

"Is it close to the full moon? He's being moody again."

"Black." Sirius turned around to see two angry boys walking in his direction. The taller of the two was Nikolas Vander Wende, the smaller one, of course, was Adrian.

"I was just looking for you two." Sirius smiled. James and Peter were by his side and while they all knew Peter was useless, he always felt better with James there. Nik was a big guy, tall and muscular with short, curly blonde hair. Adrian was skinnier with brown hair, but still tall. The two of them walked over.

"What the hell did you do to our sister?" Adrian asked.

"No idea what you're talking about." Sirius answered.

"Yesterday we saw her in Hogsmeade, with you, despite us telling her specifically to not go anywhere near you. We thought you were smart enough that you wouldn't need a direct threat, but apparently you're stupider than you look." Nik glared at the boy. "And then last night, she was upset, so obviously, you did something to her."

"Gentlemen; your sister is a big girl. She doesn't need you to protect her. I didn't do anything to her. We had a good time." Sirius quirked an eyebrow at the two men.

"You lying little,"

"Ophelia wouldn't get upset over nothing; now tell us what you did before we break your pretty little face." Nik interrupted his younger brother

"I'm going to go ahead and repeat myself." Sirius looked up at the two of them. "I didn't do anything to your sister. We went for a drink, we walked around a bit and then we parted ways." He had no plans to tell them about the Shrieking Shack and he had a feeling Ophelia wouldn't have told them about it ether. He looked up at them, waiting for them to either get angry and throw a punch, or for them to realize they weren't going to get anything from him and leave.

"So are you calling our sister a liar?"

"Maybe, what did she say?" Sirius asked. He knew that trick, he wasn't about to incriminate himself for something Ophelia hadn't actually mentioned. He didn't know Ophelia that well, but he had a feeling she didn't tell them much. She wouldn't like to be over protected. She went on and on about being independent and all that, so why would she turn around and tattle to her brothers about anything? Apparently Sirius's instinct was right because both of them faltered.

"She didn't have to say anything, Black, We know Ophelia, you'd have to of done something for her to act like that." Adrian stepped closer. He wasn't much taller than Sirius, but Sirius had always been tall.

"Is it true she was attacked by a Werewolf when she was a kid?" Sirius asked.

"What? No." Adrian was taken aback, he hadn't expected that.

"Then she was fine." He shrugged and turned to go. Adrian grabbed him.

"I'm still talking to you, kid." He said, as soon as his hand gripped Sirius's arm, Sirius swung, his fist connecting with Adrian's cheek. Adrian paused for half a second before hitting back. Nik jumped in to defend his brother and of course, James jumped into the fold, because he didn't want to be left behind. It was a tangle of fists and anger until they were pulled apart, Hagrid held onto James and Sirius, Slughorn somehow managed to hold onto Adrian. Nik stood alone, it did no good to try and get James and Sirius with Hagrid there.

"What the hell is wrong with the four of you?" Slughorn asked. None of them were his favorites, so he didn't care to be nice to them. They all did come from respectable families, but Slughorn knew Sirius would never remain a part of his family, the Potters weren't that amazing, and Nik and Adrian weren't the oldest boys in their family, Slughorn had already connected himself with their older brothers. So He didn't really need any of them to buddy up to.

"I'd really like to know that too, yeah." Ophelia moved through the crowd, getting to the front. She quirked an eyebrow, looking at her brothers, then at Sirius and James, she didn't think the fight had anything to do with James.

"Nothing." Adrian pulled away from Slughorn.

"Just a disagreement." Sirius agreed. "It's over now." He added with a glance at the two brothers. Hagrid let the two fifteen year olds go.

"Be sure it doesn't happen again." He ordered, especially at Sirius and James, at least Adrian and Nik were in his house. "If it does, I'll be handing out detentions." He threatened. He stalked off, and the Vander Wende Brothers followed him. Ophelia watched them go before whipping around to look at her classmates.

"What the hell is wrong with you two? Honestly James, two fights in one day?"

"So you saw the right with Snivelly?"

"Of course. It did happen in the middle of the hall. I'm amazed you didn't get stopped by a professor then." She placed her hands on her hips and shook her head. "You two are so pathetic."

"Your brothers started it." Sirius insisted.

"they probably did, that doesn't' make you any better." She informed them. Then she turned and walked off after her brothers and head of house.

"Well I got one step forward, and then two steps back." Sirius sighed and looked at his best friend. "Women are confusing."


	5. That Damned Dog

**Note: **I have no idea how Animagi work so we're going with this. Oh, and it's my birthday today. A really cool gift would be some reviews, follows or favorites... just saying.

**Chapter Five  
That Damned Dog  
**

Early morning the boys woke up and realized they had problems much bigger than the Vander Wende Brothers. They didn't realize it right away, well one of them did. Sirius realized something was wrong as soon as he opened his eyes. Nothing looked right. He rolled out of bed and trotted to the mirror and quickly realized the problem. He was a dog.

Literally, a dog. He yipped in fear and ran around the room a few times, barking until he woke up his friends. He wasn't a puppy, he was a big dog and seeing him in the middle of the room sent them into a panic.

"Sirius!" James turned to the empty bed, his eyes widening as he realized there wasn't a wild dog in the dorm, Sirius had changed. "How does he fix it?" He asked Remus, who had been put in charge of reading all the information even though he was the only one who wasn't going to have to learn to do it.

"I… It says to change back, do what you did to change." Remus answered. He hadn't paid a lot of attention to how to change back; he hadn't thought any of his friends were going to manage to change in the first place. He hurried to grab one of the books piled by his bed, flipping to the table of contents to try and find where the information was to get Sirius turned back into a human. They all froze, however, when they hear a Mew at the door. Someone's cat stood in the doorway, and Sirius's dog instinct kicked in and he barked at the cat, chasing it out of the dorm and down the stairs. They crashed through the common room and out of the portrait hall. James and Peter ran after him.

"Keep reading." James yelled over his shoulder. He chased the sound of chaos out of the common room, bursting through the door of the common room. The fat lady yelled a string of protests and profanities as she hit the wall a second time in as many minutes.

"And who let that damned dog in here?" She called after them as the two boys ran down the stairs, both still in their pajamas.

Sirius had managed to get down to the great hall before running into Filch. Then he turned and ran the other way, as the old man tried to bring a broom down on his head. Sirius ran out of the castle and happily into the sunshine. He slowed down only when he saw Ophelia sitting by herself near the lake, parchment on her lap and a book open next to her. He trotted over to her and nudged her arm with his nose. She jumped a bit, but relaxed when she saw it was just a dog.

"I didn't think they let dogs on campus." She scratched behind his ear and Sirius panted happily. "Well I suppose if they let guys like Sirius Black, then they should let you." Sirius yipped in protest, He wasn't that bad was he? "Right, you don't know him." She shook her head and leaned back. "Why is it the cute guys who have to be jerks? I was actually having a good time with him." Sirius rested his head in Ophelia's lap and she stroked his head.

"He can be such a great guy, especially when he's not trying to impress his friends, but then out of no where he turns around and does something stupid." She sighed. "This is why I like animals more than people." She leaned down and kissed the dog's head. "Maybe someday Sirius will grow up and stop thinking of no one but himself, but chances are, he's stuck like that forever."

"Sirius?" James ran outside, looking for a big black dog. He spotted the dog with Ophelia and he groaned. He walked over

"Oh, is this your dog?" Ophelia asked. "I wish I could say I'm shocked, but if anyone would bring a giant black dog to Hogwarts it would be you or Sirius."

"Yeah well, it was a group effort, Sirius and myself." He reached out to grab the dog's scruff.

"He and I were just having a nice chat. He's a good dog. Cute one too."

"You have no idea how happy he is to hear that." James informed her. "Come on… Snuffles."

"Snuffles?"

"Sirius named him." James shrugged and led the dog away. James swore he was getting a dog glare. "It was all I could come up with on short notice." He muttered. Peter ran over, clutching the invisibility cloak that James had told him to go get. "Mate, next time you get the urge to chase a cat, fight it."

* * *

Back up in the dorm, Sirius was laying out in the sun, as Remus tried to find the easiest, most sure-fire way to fix it. James was playing with his snitch and Peter was watching the three of them.

"Are you sure you don't want to play more fetch?" James asked. Sirius lifted his head, giving him an unimpressed stare, and then lowered his head again. James chuckled and went back to playing with the snitch.

"Alright, I think I have it." Remus got up and walked over to where Sirius was laying. "Okay… picture you as a human and… become it I guess. You have to transfer your form."

"Remus that is the stupidest thing I ever," James cut off as the dog lying comfortably on the floor turned into a human boy, laying uncomfortably on the floor. Sirius groaned and stood up,

"Oh god, Never spend that much time as an animal, you get really stiff." He shook his head.

"No, I think that came from having your head in Ophelia's lap." James teased.

"Shut up." Sirius said, but smiled. He had a new plan. He wasn't giving up on his relationship with Ophelia. Of course at the moment there was no relationship, but there would be. He wasn't going to give up until there was one. He was immature sure, but more than that, he was incredibly stubborn. He never gave up when it was something he really wanted, and he really wanted this.

"Okay, now as the only one of us to have done it, you have to tell Peter and I how you managed it."

"I dreamt I was a dog. I was running through the park chasing animals and then when I woke up and had four legs and was irresistible to women, though that's nothing new." He was trying to think of something he'd done that was different, something that might have led to him changing. He had been practicing before bed but all he'd managed to get was a headache. He thought he'd been going crazy when he dreamed about being a dog.

"Well I told you walking on four legs would make canine the best option." James smiled. Sirius made a rude gesture at him and got back onto the bed.

"I heard what I needed to. I am going to make Ophelia fall in love with me."

"Why?" Remus asked, peering at him over the book, he'd decided to go ahead and read the whole thing, just in case there were other things they needed to know about the process, like the animal urges. They didn't need Peter chewing holes in their sheets or James running out in the streets in front of muggle cars.

"What?"

"Why make her fall in love with you? You'll just end up proving her right, unless you plan on being with her forever." He quirked an eyebrow.

"I," Sirius faltered; okay he wasn't sure why he wanted her so much. He thought it was because she turned him down but it felt like more than that now. "Because I want to." he answered with a shrug.

"Well as long as you have solid reasoning." Remus rolled his eyes.

"I'm hungry. I am going to dinner." Sirius got up and shot a look at James, who got up. He and Sirius were rarely out without each other. When they did go out on their own, things like duels with Snape had a habit of happening. Remus closed his book and got up, followed by Peter, who was happy they had made the suggestion. He'd been starving for the past couple of hours.

The four friends made their way down to the great hall, and the first thing Sirius did was scope out Ophelia. She sat at the Slytherin table, surrounded by other girls. They were all talking and laughing, she was poking at whatever it was on her plate. He went to the Gryffindor table with his friends and they all sat down, filling their plates with the chicken and rice dish that the house elves had made for them. Remus ate slowly, chewing thoughtfully, his mind probably still on the Animagi thing. James shoveled the food in his mouth like he was afraid it would be taken away from him if he didn't eat it fast enough. Peter use to try and copy that, but after getting sick every night for a week, he learned to slow it down. Usually Sirius ate like James, shoveling as much food into his mouth as he could possibly fit, but tonight his mind was on other things, another thing. He kept glancing over at Ophelia, but she seemed determined to not turn her attention away from the chicken on her plate.

"I'm going to do it." He declared, pushing his half eaten plate of food away and got up from his seat. He walked over and sat down across from Ophelia at the Slytherin table. Finally she looked up from the poultry.

"Yes?" She asked.

"We're going on a date."

"Black, in order for it to be a date, both parties must be consenting, otherwise it is considered kidnapping." She said cooly.

"Then I'm kidnapping you." He replied. "We're going to go out and we're going to have a good time and you will see that I am not who you think I am. Friday evening, five o'clock, I will meet you in the Great Hall and if you aren't there, then I will go to the entrance of the Slytherin Common room and sing gooey romantic love songs until you come out." Ophelia stared at him then stabbed her fork into her chicken, tearing off a bit.

"Five, Great hall, last chance." She ate the chicken and chewed slowly. She swallowed it and looked at him. "Now leave." She ordered. He tried to hold back a grin, getting up and going back to the Gryffindor table where James was waiting with a high five, Peter a low five, and Remus with a disapproving look.


	6. The Breaking Point

**Note: **Huge thanks for the reviews and the favorites and the alerts. You all are awesome, and totally made my day. My birthday was a bit of a bummer, but it did get better when I saw all the alerts on my e-mail.

******Chapter 6**  
**the Breaking Point**

"You're seriously going to give him a second chance?" Adrian asked his little sister as they sat in the common room.

"I seriously am." Ophelia nodded, she had her transfiguration book in her lap and she was attempting to get homework done. But it was an impossible task with her brothers giving her a hard time.

"Ophelia, what he did to you last time,"

"He didn't do anything to me." Ophelia looked over at her brothers. "We went to the Shrieking Shack and I got freaked out. End of story, he didn't beat me or compromise my honor or whatever it is you seem to think he did."

"But the way you were acting,"

"Hi, fifteen year old girl, sometimes I act really weird. There is nothing to be done about it. It's what we do." She closed her book and picked up her parchment. "Seriously, this protective brother act is getting old." She informed them both as she got up.

"Ophelia, you're our baby sister, we'll always be protective of you." Nik informed her.

"Because if we aren't, then Sebastian and Stanford kill us, then kill whoever managed to get to you." Adrian shrugged.

"Well Stanford and Sebastian can bite me. Stanford has his own family to worry about and… Sebastian just needs to stop." She said, talking about her oldest brothers. Sebastian was being groomed to take over the family business, and Stanford had a wife and a baby on the way. They both had things to worry about that didn't include her or her love life, or lack thereof, she still refused to call what she felt for Sirius love. She called it a natural curiosity. She'd been out for a drink with Sirius, but she was interested in seeing how he could turn anything on campus into a date. After all it wasn't like the castle was overflowing with romantic spots.

Hogwarts made dating incredibly difficult. Not that it ever stopped any of the students. It did, after all, have plenty of nooks and crannies for snogging.

Ophelia headed up to her dorm, opening her book and trying again to get her homework done, of course as soon as she started to write her first line, the door opened and her dorm mates poured in, all giggling and laughing. They all fell silent as soon as they got a look at Ophelia.

"Mrs. Black." Yvette Parkinson grinned, going to sit on her bed.

"Wow Yvette, that was witty." Ophelia said drily, looking back down at her book. She knew the best way to deal with these girls was to ignore them. She'd grown up with most of them. And she hated most of them as well. There was something about being forced to play with someone as a kid, you grew to hate them, their stupid dolls with the uneven hair from an unfortunate play barber incident, and Yvette was the worst of them. She was bound and determined to get her arse kicked. One of the upsides to growing up with four brothers was that Ophelia knew how to fight.

"Seriously Ophelia, I had no idea you were into his type."

"And what type is that?" She didn't look up.

"The kind to get you on your back then run off to his next conquest."

"Well Yvette, while you may find it very hard to say no, I have no problem turning anyone down." She looked up and smiled sweetly. "I can keep my legs closed." She nodded and went back to writing. Yvette's smile vanished, replaced by a mask of anger.

"Anyway, that was kind of hot, I mean, how he comes over all 'me tarzan, you Jane, we date'." Beatrice jumped in. Ophelia wrinkled her nose.

"He did to that didn't he?" She asked. "I should have turned him down." She closed her book, giving up on homework. "Well whatever. Next time, remind me to beat him with a chicken leg."

"No, Beatrice is right." Yvette nodded. "A big strong man coming up and,"

"Dragging you back to his cave by your hair? Yeah, sexy." Ophelia shook her head.

"Well you're the one who said yes, so obviously it works." Yvette snapped at her. Ophelia bit back an angry comment and went to get changed for bed.

"So when are you going to start looking for an outfit?" Beatrice asked.

"I've got one." She answered, walking back to her bed and getting under the blanket. "No big deal." Beatrice laughed and went to change into her own pajamas.

"Good news, woke up this morning as a human." Sirius announced to his friends. He got out of bed and got dressed for class. He was counting down the days until his date with Ophelia. He was shocked that it worked. He had been fully expecting her to tell him to stuff it. But now he had a second chance with her. They headed down to breakfast and Remus caught the newspaper as the owl dropped it off. He frowned as he read the front page.

"Another death." He said solemnly. "They claim it's nothing to worry about but I would swear that it's all being done by the same guy." He shook his head as he read over the article. "This is ridiculous. They're hiding the truth. They don't' want panic but people should be keeping an eye out."

"What can I do to protect myself?" Sirius asked.

"You're fine, James too." Remus informed him. "Only going after muggleborns… so far." He looked up, they all, knew who it probably was. No one was confirming it, but it was no secret that Tom Riddle, who had taken on the name Voldemort, was stirring the pot. He wanted a war between pureblood and Muggleborns. The worst part was that he was gaining a following. He was like a cult leader.

"My mum will be thrilled." Sirius muttered bitterly. He started to eat, then noticed the looks. "She hasn't joined him or anything, as far as I know at least. Though I do know some of her friends have." He shrugged. "I've fought with her about it, seems like she has no intention of joining him. But she thinks he has the right idea." He rolled his eyes. "She thinks the half bloods and Muggleborns are the reason Purebloods are dying out."

"Well technically yes, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing."

"Not at all." Sirius agreed. "When I can claim multiple family tree connections to my father, we need to branch out more."

"Can't say your mum would be upset with the tree you're trying to climb though." James teased.

"Don't tell me that." Sirius shook his head; he usually abhorred anything his parents would approve of. He usually went out of his way to do things he knew they wouldn't like. But yet, there he was, falling all over himself for a pureblood girl. If she wasn't so hot, he'd have hated himself for it. Remus pulled out his notebook and wrote something down, putting it back in the bag.

"Alright, I'm done eating." He said, getting up. The others finished up and followed him out, going down to the potions room.

Ophelia was already there, sitting next to Snape. Snape's hair hung like a dirty black curtain, blocking anyone's view of what he was writing. Of course to James and Sirius, that was an invitation. They walked over quietly and snatched the paper away from him.

"What are you writing there Snivelly?" James asked, handing the paper over to Sirius who took it from him, dancing out of the way as Severus reached for it.

"Give it back." Lily demanded, getting up from her table.

"Wrong Marauder Evans, I don't listen to you." Sirius informed her. Lily shot a look at Ophelia.

"Don't look at me; I'm keeping out of it." The blonde shrugged and leaned back,

"He's your potions partner." Lily reached for the paper, but Sirius moved.

"So? He doesn't like me." Ophelia looked at Severus, who glared at her. She had no idea why Snape didn't like her, but quite frankly, she didn't care if he liked her or not. Lily rolled her eyes and tried to get the paper from Sirius.

"Ooh I see what the deal is." Sirius grinned. "Are you her boyfriend Snivelly?" He asked. "Dating Lily Evans are we?" James glared daggers at Sirius.

"We're not dating." Lily denied. "You two are just jerks."

"What have I done?" James asked, he hadn't moved since taking the paper from the Slytherin. Lily just gave him an annoyed look. Ophelia rolled her eyes at them as Slughorn came in, barking at them to get in their seats. Lily grabbed the paper from Sirius, handing it to Severus before going to her table.

Slughorn wrote the instructions on the board and Ophelia reached out to grab the first ingredient.

"Don't touch it." Snape snapped. "I'll do it." He grabbed it from her and got started. Ophelia frowned, sitting back down, thinking. She didn't want to do this. She didn't want to sit back and let Severus do all the work.

"No." She reached for the second ingredient.

"You'll just mess it up, shut up, sit down and let me do it." Severus grabbed the next ingredient away from her. She narrowed her eyes; she didn't like being told no, especially by Severus Snape. She tried to hold back the urge to throw a fit, but reached out and knocked the cauldron off the table. Snape jumped up, and looked over at her.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Snape held his hand to his chest, a burn across his palm.

"What is wrong with you?" She snapped back at him. "You don't get to tell me what to do and you sure as hell don't get to exclude me from our potion." Slughorn walked over, seeing the mess.

"That's detention Miss Vander Wende." He said.

"What?" Sirius got up and walked over. "Professor, that's crap. She's just trying to do her work. Snivelly is the one being a jerk."

"I'm trying to keep us from failing." Snape corrected. "Pretty face and nothing more." He snarled at Ophelia. She didn't get a chance to defend herself before Sirius shoved the pale boy, in a flash, Remus was up, holding Sirius back from jumping on Severus.

"Shut your mouth Snape, before I hex it shut." Sirius yelled at him.

"Two weeks of detention and twenty points from Gryffindor." Slughorn announced. Sirius calmed down a bit, until Remus let him go, then he lunged for the boy again, Remus barely able to catch him. Finally he actually calmed down, after Slughorn sent Snape to the infirmary.

"Looks like our date is going to be postponed." Sirius said apologetically.

"I think I'll get over it." She nodded. "Thanks Sirius." She added, packing up her stuff as class ended.

"Detention doesn't count as our date." He made sure to add.

"We'll see." Ophelia replied. "Detention might end up overloading the amount of your bull I can take." She grinned as she walked out of the room.


	7. House Elf Work

**Note:** I'm really happy you all like this story. I've been planning it in my head for a while and it's really starting to take shape. Sorry for the wait (Okay so it was less than twelve hours after my usual time, I still feel bad) I was shopping with my grandma. Lots of awesome New books to go on my shelves.

**Chapter 7  
House Elf Work**

"I thought this was why the school had house elves." Ophelia muttered as she dipped the rag into the tub of polish. She rubbed the foul smelling polish against the trophy, ignoring the words engraved into its surface.

"Until they need some sick and twisted way to punish students." Sirius said, rubbing at a particularly dirty trophy. He looked back at her and smiled. "At least this time I have a decent partner. Usually I'm stuck here with James."

"Well if he wants to trade places, I'm willing to let him. My hands are going to smell like this for days."

"Naw, I'll give you something to fix it. James and I figured out the best way to get the polish smell off our hands a couple years ago." Sirius rubbed at the trophy. "I'm pretty sure they re-dirty the trophies just to give us something to do. Because I have to clean them about once and month and they always look like this." He shook his head.

"or else there's something really, really wrong with this room." She nodded and put the trophy back, picking up the next one. "You know, in Beauxbatons they don't have to do this." She said. She noticed his look. "My parents were thinking about sending me there. They thought it would be better, but in the end, the reputation of Hogwarts won out. They also thought about sending my brothers to Durmstrang." She shrugged.

"I don't' think your brothers would be the big guys on campus if they had gone to Durmstrang." Sirius smirked. He knew that the guys at Durmstrang were generally really tough and gruff and not someone you wanted to mess with.

"I don't' know, I think they would have adapted. It's what we do." She shrugged and went back to polishing. "You're sure you'll be able to make this smell go away, because I don't think I'll be sleeping much with this stench anywhere near my face." She put down the rag and sniffed her hand, nope, that was rancid. She didn't' think polish was supposed to smell like this. She had a feeling it was another way to make the punishment seem worse than it normally would have been.

"Yeah, it works. I think it can get rid of just about any smell you have on your body… we needed it because of reasons."

"I don't want to know. It will make me an accomplice and I really don't want that." Ophelia shook her head. She knew the marauders were notorious for causing trouble. She on the other hand, rarely got detentions. Not because she was super smooth and never got caught, she just never really did anything to get into trouble for. It always seemed like it just wasn't worth the punishment. And she was being proven right as she ruined her manicure in the pot of disgusting polish.

"Alright it is eight o'clock, it is time for us to call it a day." Sirius stood up, dropping his rag. "If you follow me to my dorm, I can get you the stuff for your hands."

"Alright." She nodded, dropping her rag and standing up. Her legs were stiff but she stretched them out. She walked to the door behind Sirius. "Should we take the rags and polish back?" She asked.

"I'm not touching that stuff unless I have to. Someone will pick it up. They always do." He shrugged and looked back at her. She didn't argue, following him down the hall. They slowed down as they heard voices.

"I don't understand why we have to meet up in here." A voice complained.

"Because, The Dark Lord demanded we continue to meet and recruit new members, But we can't meet in public." They both recognized that voice, it was Regulus. Sirius's face turned red as he listened.

"Yeah, and how do you know what the Dark Lord wants?" A third voice challenged.

"I'm in direct contact with him." Regulus boasted. Sirius started to charge towards the room, but Ophelia grabbed his arm, she shook her head. He opened his mouth to argue but she clapped her hand over his mouth.

"You are not." The first voice argued.

"I am. He trusts me." They could practically hear him smirking. "I do come from an old pureblood family after all. Can't say the same for you Wilder, can I?" Vance Wilder was a half blood Slytherin in Ophelia and Sirius's year. His dad was pureblood and his mum half blood, but by blood purity standards, that was still a half blood.

"So what is the plan?" The only unknown voice asked.

"We're going to start with the Slytherins, the purebloods mostly. They're the ones we want, After that we'll move on and ask the half bloods. No mudbloods." He said sharply. Sirius growled, muffled by Ophelia's hand. The three of them went back to talking and she grabbed his hand, pulling him away from the door. She didn't let go until she'd dragged him up the stairs.

"That slimy little son of a snake." Sirius snarled. "He actually joined with those no good- I don't know why I'm surprised. Mother will love this; her perfect little boy jumping on the pure blood is the only blood train." He ranted. Ophelia tapped her fingers on her collarbone, a nervous habit.

"We should tell Dumbledore." Sirius announced.

"Tell him what?" She asked. "That we overheard a bunch of stupid teenagers acting like they were in with Voldemort?" She looked at him. "You and I both know there is no way Regulus is actually talking to him."

"This needs to be nipped in the bud, I know my brother and if he saw the chance to get in with that crowd, he'd take it. And he'd be stupid enough to let that bigoted mad man influence him into doing anything."

"I don't know…" She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "It's probably nothing, you know that. There's only three of them."

"That we know of, there could be more that just didn't get invited to the meeting."

"Didn't he say it was mandatory or something?" She asked him. "I just don't think we should start a panic when there's no reason for it."

"I'm telling Dumbledore." He said firmly. "I'm not going to let Regulus ruin Hogwarts. If it's nothing, then Dumbledore will straighten it out, if it's something big, then he'll straighten it out." Sirius nodded. "You can try to ignore the problem if you want, but I'm not about to let Tom Riddle's poison make it's way through this school." Ophelia bit her lip and looked down.

"Right, why should you care, you're pureblood and so are your friends." Sirius shook his head

"Beatrice is a half blood." Ophelia protested. Sirius turned to look at her and rolled his eyes, turning and walking away. She watched him go, confused about what she did, and then followed him, really not wanting the other three boys to find her down there alone.

"I'm embarrassed to call him my brother." Sirius growled as they walked up the stairs.

"He says the same thing about you." Ophelia noted. Sirius glared at her and she shrugged. "It's true."

"He's twisted, Ophelia. He honestly thinks this is right. He thinks pureblood should be the only blood."

"Because that's how he was raised." Ophelia pointed out.

"So was I."

"But you're different. You don't care about being accepted by your family. You like fighting with them." Honestly Ophelia wondered if Sirius would have been a blood purest if his parents hadn't been. She wasn't going to ask though. She wasn't in the mood to have Sirius black strangler her in the hall outside of the Prefect's lavatory.

"Regulus,"

"Isn't as strong as you. He's a followed and wants someone to tell him what to do, what do believe. Besides, he's trying to impress your parents." She placed her hands on her hips. "People do stupid things to impress the people they love."

"That's ridiculous."

"Says the boy who bullies Severus Snape to impress James."

"I don't' do it to impress James."

"Yes you do. That's why you always do it when he's around, even though Snape hasn't' done anything to you." Ophelia looked at him. "I know you don't feel threatened by him, but James does. Because Lily actually likes Snape. And you want to impress James, so you help him go after the boy."

"That's not true."

"yes it is." She headed for the stairs.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"To my dorm room." She answered.

"We're going to see Dumbledore."

"You are. I said I wasn't."

"You're really going to overlook this?" he asked her, shocked. He didn't really think she was going to just sit back and watch Voldemort try to take over the school.

"Yes." She nodded and walked down the stairs to go back to the dorm. Sirius shook his head and went to Dumbledore's office to tell him what had happened, what he had heard.

Dumbledore took it very seriously. He sent out messages to Regulus and Vance. The two of them arrived with Slughorn and McGonagall.

"What is the problem Headmaster?" Slughorn asked. Dumbledore ignored him, looking to the teenage boys.

"Were you holding a meeting tonight?"

"A Meeting." Regulus raised an eyebrow.

"A meeting, planning the promotion of Voldemort's agenda." Dumbledore was eerily calm.

"No." Regulus answered coolly. "A few of us were hanging out." He admitted. "and Voldemort was mentioned, but I wouldn't call it a meeting."

"You said you were going to start recruiting." Sirius couldn't keep quiet.

"You simply misheard in your eavesdropping." Regulus shrugged. "We wouldn't go around Hogwarts recruiting. We would have to be members of Voldemort's army." He held out his arm, his clear, mark free arm. It was common knowledge that Voldemort's followers all had tattoos on their forearms.

"You lying son of a-"

"Mr. Black." Dumbledore cut him off. Regulus smiled at his brother. "Thank you both for coming here. You're all dismissed." He knew the boys were lying but he didn't have any solid proof, He was just going to have to keep a close eye on them from now on. Sirius glared at the two Slytherins. "Professors, if you would stay, I'd like a word with both of you." They then sent the three boys out of the room.

"You're a liar Regulus."

"I am." Regulus agreed. "But I'm not the only one. Ask your little girlfriend about the last time she saw me." He smirked. "See you around big brother." Regulus then walked off, Vance Running to keep up with him.

**Additional Note: **For anyone thinking 'Regulus is fourteen why would he have any kind of position in Voldemort's army?' The way I see it, Voldemort would want a contact in the school. And Regulus is from a prominent Pureblood family, and my head canon of Regulus is that he was actually a fairly strong, calculating individual. So I feel that Voldemort would have used Regulus to help him recruit more students.


	8. Beginners Luck

**Note: **Chapter Eight! Yay! This story almost has direction. Thank you all so much for the reviews and the follows and the favorites. I get super excited every time I get one.

**Chapter Eight  
Beginners Luck**

Soon enough it was Friday, and it was time for their date. Ophelia still had no idea what they were going to be doing. She'd been on a couple of Hogwarts dates but they had been so boring, she usually turned guys down unless they asked her out on Hogsmeade weekends. She still wasn't sure why she'd said yes to Sirius at all. She walked into the great hall, waiting for him. She glanced around, looking at her watch for the time. He was late. He was actually late. She clenched her jaw. She didn't like to wait; she didn't like it when someone was late, especially for a date. She jumped about a foot in the air when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She looked and there was nothing there. After a moment there came a laugh and Sirius appeared out of nowhere.

"What in the world…"

"Invisibility cloak." Sirius held up the printed cloak. "It's James's he let me borrow it for the night."

"Why?" She asked.

"Because he's my mate."

"I mean, why do we need it?"

"Because it's easier to sneak in and out of the school with this. Actually," He admitted, "We probably don't need it, but it's cool so I wanted to use it" He folded it over his arm and led the way up the stairs. They went up a couple of floors and then he led the way down a corridor to the humpback witch statue. Ophelia glanced around and when she looked back to Sirius, he'd opened a passageway.

"Where did that come from?"

"It's been here. We found it by accident and we use it all the time." He looked back at her. "it's how we never run out of sweets." He smiled and headed down the passage way, stopping and holding out a hand for Ophelia. She took it and followed him into the passage.

It wasn't that far of a walk before they came up.

"Where are we?"

"Honeydukes." He answered. He opened the cellar door and peeked out before slipping out. He helped her out and stashed the cloak. "We'll need it to get back in." He explained. They walked into the front of the store. It wasn't packed like it was on the weekends. And she liked that. They quickly bought come candy, Sirius needed to stock up anyway, then they headed out of the candy store.

"So what are we doing on our date? If you say Shrieking Shack-"

"No Shrieking Shack." He promised and walked down the street. "I'm taking you for food, then for a drink, and then I guess we'll head back to the castle." He smiled at her. She nodded, okay with that. They went to one of the few restaurants in Hogsmeade. He even pulled out her seat for her. She had a feeling he'd had a lot of practice taking girls out on dates. But she didn't say it. She didn't want to ruin the moment. They were brought menus and made small talk as they looked them over.

"O.W.L.S Are coming up." Ophelia looked up at him

"They are." He nodded.

"Are you nervous?"

"No, why would I be?" He asked. "I'm going to do great on them; I always do really well on tests." He smirked. He was extremely cocky. "I bet you're not worried."

"I am." She informed him. "I want to do well enough on my O.W.L.S to get into good classes."

"Well what do you plan on doing after Hogwarts?"

"I'm not sure." She admitted. "But I'm going to do something." She said quickly. He smiled.

"Well then, You and I will just have to make a lot of study dates. So you can benefit from the power of my brains." He grinned.

"You can't really be this cocky." She said, looking at him.

"I really can be." He argued. "And I really am." He added.

"You seriously think you're going to do amazing on the exams, so well that you can teach me everything I'll need to know."

"I don't think I can, I know I can." He smiled at her. She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, okay." She shook her head and took a sip of her water when the waiter brought it. They put in their orders and had a nice meal, nothing going horribly wrong, but to Sirius' delight. He had been sure something was going to go wrong. It always seemed to. However by the time they had finished eating, everything had gone fine.

"Alright, where are we going next?" She asked.

"For a drink. But there is a small problem."

"What's that?" She asked.

"We can't go to the Three Broomsticks. They know we're students."

"Then where will we go?" Her answer came a moment later as Sirius pushed open the door to the Hogs Head.

"No." She shook her head. "Nope, I'm not going in there."

"Why not?"

"I don't want to end up dead, Sirius." Ophelia looked at him seriously. He laughed.

"Sorry princess, but I don't think anyone here will be interested in murdering you. Not unless you take their drink." He wrapped an arm around her waist and led her into the dark bar. He walked with her up to the bar. Ophelia looked around, trying not to stare at anyone too long, still not convinced she wasn't going to end up murdered. A man at a table with a huge tankard of beer leered at her and she quickly looked away, moving closer to Sirius.

"What'll you have?" The bartender asked in his deep scratchy voice.

"Butterbeers." The man next to them predicted. "Look at 'em Jerry, they can't take anything stronger'n that." The two teenagers look at the man.

"Fire whiskey, Jerry." Ophelia ordered. She smiled sweetly at the man at the bar, Jerry put the glass on the bar and she downed it, slamming the glass back down onto the bar. "My parents don't lock the liquor cabinet and I don't like drinking water." She replied to Sirius's curious look.

"Oh cool, so you're an alcoholic?"

"No, I can't really drink when we're at school, so I'm a Seasonal Alcoholic." She joked. Sirius smiled and ordered them both a fire whiskey. This time Ophelia just sipped on hers. She didn't really care to wake up with a hang over in the morning. She may have had a few drinks in her life, but she'd never found a real way to avoid the hang over, because her parents did lock those potions up.

"What's going on over there?" She nodded at a table of men, all hunched over.

"Poker." He answered. "Serious poker, high stakes."

"Poker isn't too hard." She said thoughtfully. "I use to play all the time with Adrian, Nik and Stanford." She leaned against the bar. "And I always beat them." She smirked, and looked over in that direction again.

"No." Sirius shook his head. "I know what you're thinking, and no. You said you didn't want to end up murdered, so let's try and avoid that." She pouted and took another sip of her fire whiskey.

"You're no fun." She informed him.

"Yeah, but if you die, I'll have an army of your family coming after me to avenge your death, even though I wouldn't have been the one to kill you. I think your brothers are just looking for a reason to kill me at this point."

"They are."She nodded. "They hate you." She shrugged. "They hate that I agreed to go out with you at all, yet alone a second time."

"Why would they hate me?"

"I'm not sure. They just kind of do. I think it's because of how your mum talks about you. They never spend time with you so all they know is what they've heard from your mum." She finished her drink and put the glass down, declining when she was asked about another glass. She turned her attention back to Sirius, who looked thoughtful. "So did you talk to Dumbledore?"

"I did. He couldn't do anything. I guess he has to wait for proof, and I'm not exactly an unbiased source. It's no secret that Regulus and I don't get along… at all." He finished his own drink.

"Oh." She thought about that. She didn't regret not going with him to the headmaster though. She had her reasons for that. "Let's go. We'll have time to hang out before we have to go back to our dorms." She said, pushing away from the bar. She looked back at the poker game.

"No." He saw her looking.

"Just one game." She begged. "If I lose then I lose and we'll go."

"No Ophelia, that's a bad idea. I'm not here to watch you do something stupid."

"You're not my keeper Sirius Black, I can do it if I want."

"You can, but you won't."

"Wanna bet?" She asked, turning on her heel. He groaned and followed her. She walked up to the table to spite him. "I want in on the next game." She informed them. The men just laughed.

"You can't afford this." One man said.

"Deal me in and you'll find out if I can afford it." She glared at him. One guy shrugged.

"It's her money." He said. The game ended and he went to deal the hand. She pulled up a chair and shook her hair back. Sirius groaned and got ready to grab her and run, just in case. Ophelia picked up her cards, re-arranged them a bit and then glanced up at the read of them. The men all kept their eyes down on the cards as they registered what they had and what they needed.

Sirius watched Ophelia's face, and it was blank as she looked back down at her cards, moving one to the right. He was surprised, he never thought of her as one who could hide her emotions, at all. They went around, and she handed back two cards. When she got the replacements, she put them in place and made her bet. She threw out a few coins. She had money on her, but that was all she had to bet. The men were putting out odd objects. A knife with elaborate engravings, a few rare potion ingredients, just odd things. She put more money out and then they showed their hands. She wrinkled her nose when she lost. Sirius moved to get her so they could go, but the dealer already dealt her in. He sighed and sat back down.

This round she handed back three cards. She kept her face totally blank as they made bets. He had no idea where she was hiding all the money, but she managed to put out enough to equal their bets. Then it was time to show their hands. The first man had folded, the second one had two pair. The third had two pair as well, but not as high as the second one. The fourth man proudly put out his full house. Sirius eyed Ophelia, who smirked and put down her cards, a royal flush. He tried to hold back a smile.

"Thank you very much Gentlemen, but we need to get back to school before we're missed." She gathered her winnings, making Sirius carry a few things.

"You beat them." He said as they walked out.

"I'm good at reading people… and I got lucky. Beginners luck you know." She shrugged and turned the knife in her hand, the man who won it originally had re-bet it. She smirked and they headed back to Honeydukes, sneaking into the cellar and pulling on the cloak. They went back down the passageway and into the school. Once there, they crept away from the humpback Witch and then pulled the cloak off.

"Alright so tonight I learned you're an alcoholic card shark, and I thought I couldn't like you anymore than I already did." He joked.

"It's pretty hard to not love me." She shrugged and walked with him.

"I want to ask you something…" He stopped and looked at her.

"Go for it." She shrugged. He hesitated but then opening his mouth.

"When was the last time you saw my brother, well… before yesterday, but you didn't really see him then." He was nervous about her answer. He had no idea what Regulus had been talking about. His nerves just got worse when he saw the look on her face. Apparently that mask of emotionless-ness was only around for poker games.

"It's… complicated." She answered.

"Un-complicate it." He prompted. She bit her lip. "You and he didn't…"

"Date? God no." She shook her head. "Regulus is too much like you, but without the humor to break up the cockiness. Without the humor, he's just unbearable." She bit her lip and looked at the items she was holding. "Last time I saw Regulus was at a death eater meeting."

"You're a-"

"I'm not." She shook her head even more insistently. "I had gone to my brother's house, Sebastian's, and… I walked in on a meeting of Death Eaters. But you can't tell anyone. If they find out my brother is, then they find out your brother is."

"But I want them to find out my brother is. I want this to be stopped."

"Sirius, just keep your mouth shut. If it gets out that my brother was hosting one of those meetings, he'll be arrested and put in Azkaban."

"So? He deserves it if he's a death eater."

"He's my brother."

"He wants to destroy the Wizarding world."

"He's my brother." She snapped at him, grabbing the things from him. "And I will not risk him being put into prison for the rest of his life because of some stupid decision."

"Ophelia," He sighed.

"I know you don't give a damn about your family, but I care about mine and I'm not going to watch my brother wither into nothing in that hell hole." She turned on her heel and started to walk away. He started to follow but stopped, he knew there was nothing he could say, because he didn't agree with her. Not at all.


	9. Mystery Man

**Note: **Chapter Nine! This is going to be a fairly long story I think. I'm only into part one right now. There are... three parts? Yeah, three sounds right. Anyway, I don't plan on stopping anytime soon. I promise. Anyway, loving the follows, favorites and Review, I really am. Oh! I'm currently reading Insurgent by Veronica Roth, have any of you read it? I'm almost a third of the way in and I'm loving it.

**Chapter Nine  
Mystery Man**

"I told you not to give him another chance." Nik said as the three of them lounged out under the tree outside. They were still angry about her coming back to the dorm, upset again.

"Yeah Nik, I know, you've only told me about a hundred times now." Ophelia sighed. "I get it, Sirius Black is bad news. Stay away from him, whatever." She rolled her eyes and leaned back against the trunk of the tree. The marauders were actually outside as well. It was a very rare break from the cold weather and everyone was taking advantage of it. Most people were outside enjoying the sun shining down, but it was still a bit chilly, so everyone was still in jumpers and coats.

"You should just tell us what happened. That way we have a definite answer for him when he asks us why we're kicking his arse."

"Adrian, if you go near him, I will kill both of you." Ophelia looked over at her brothers. Nik grimaced.

"I don't see why you're so protective of him. Obviously he's doing something to upset you, which means he deserves to get his arse kicked so he knows not to mess with you."

"Nik, you're stupid." Nik didn't get to respond to that because of the girl running over to them.

"Did you hear?" Beatrice asked, breathlessly.

"Maybe, hear what?" Ophelia looked up, shading her eyes from the sun.

"There is going to be a secret Halloween party. It's a masquerade and no one is allowed in without a mask."

"Nope, hadn't heard that, had you heard it Adrian?" Nik looked at his brother.

"No Nikolas, I hadn't heard that."

"Sounds to me like it's a joke. Who did you hear it from?" Nik asked Beatrice.

"People have been talking about it." Beatrice rolled her eyes. "It's a big thing. Everyone is trying to figure out where it's going to be, how they're going to keep it from the professors, it's a big deal." She placed her hands on her hips.

"Does anyone know who started the rumor?" Ophelia asked.

"No, but people are speculating that it might have been the Marauders." Beatrice answered.

"Nope, not interested." Adrian shook his head. "Nothing cooked up by those four is a good idea."

"I might go." Ophelia argued.

"No you won't. We're not going to let you give that prat a third chance." Nik shook his head. He really tried to let his sister have a sense of independence, but he couldn't do that if she was going to make bad decisions. It was his job to protect his little sister and he was going to do that. Just like his older brothers protected him and Adrian. They may have been a dysfunctional family but they were strong and they didn't let anyone mess with their own.

"There is a difference between going to a party and giving Sirius another chance. I probably won't even talk to him, and if I do, I won't know it's him and he won't know it's me." Ophelia pointed out. It was rare that they got to have parties and balls at the school. There were plenty of them at home, of course, but school events were just more fun, more people their own age.

"Besides, it's a party, you two can be there to make sure Sirius stays away." Beatrice piped up. Ophelia turned to glare at her as the boys thought about that.

"Yeah I guess that's true." Nik nodded.

"We'll have to think about it." Adrian agreed.

"Nothing to think about boys, If I decide I want to go, I'll go. And you can't do anything to stop me." Ophelia smiled and got up off the ground. "Come on Bea, We're going to have to see if we can't figure out where this mysterious party is. No use in getting costumes and all that if we don't even know where to go."

Beatrice shook her head.

"Your family is very strange."

"We're just… protective. Have to protect the bloodline and all that." Ophelia reasoned. Her family weren't blood purests in the sense that they thought pure blood was best, they were more about the idea that they, the Vander Wendes, were best.

"Whatever, makes me glad I'm an only child." Beatrice followed her friend into the castle.

"Sometimes I really wish I was." Ophelia admitted, thinking about her oldest brother and his newest affliation with Voldemort and the Death Eater crowd. She didn't want that to get around. Not just because she was worried about her brother being arrested. She was more worried about people finding out and thinking it was a family thing. She didn't support the idea and she knew her three other brothers didn't buy it either. Purebloods could be just as awful as anyone else.

"Well maybe you can sell them. I'm sure there would be some ladies interested in buying. Because what they lack in tact, they make up for in looks."

"Oh god. I'm not hanging out with you anymore." Ophelia made a face and walked away from Beatrice.

It was the day of the mysterious party and the location had been found out. It was whispered around the school to let everyone know. Of course they had to find a huge room, something big enough to hold the entire school because everyone was extremely excited for this dance. Everyone had plans to go. Every girl in the fifth year Slytherin dorm was freaking out, trying to get dressed and get their hair put up and their masks on in just the right way.

"I don't know about this outfit." Beatrice sighed and she looked in the mirror.

"Shut up, you look great." Ophelia dusted very fine glitter over her collar bone. "I knew that outfit would be perfect for you. Beatrice sighed and walked away from the mirror, her long dress making her look like a fairy. She picked up her mask and tied it on. It was pink and green, matching her dress. She smiled a bit as she looked at the whole thing put together, she did like it.

"Alright, maybe it looks kind of good." She admitted.

"Damn straight." Ophelia stood up and went to get her own mask. She tied it behind her head and smoothed the long ethereal white dress of her Angel costume. She smiled and turned side to side, the glitter on her chest and arms gave her a slight glow. It looked amazing, and was just perfect. Everyone had spent an obnoxious amount of time shopping for their costumes and everything else they needed to complete the looks.

"Alright, let's get going, don't want to be late." At this point it was pretty useless to pretend the professors didn't know about the party. Everyone had been talking about nothing else all month. But now it was time and it didn't seem like any of the professors was going to stop them. Except extra rounds at the end of the night to make sure there weren't any couples snogging in empty classrooms. They always managed to find four or five couples who think they can be sneaky enough to do so.

"You're right, let's go." Ophelia turned and walked out of the dorm. She walked down with her best friend. Some girls managed to find dates, but Ophelia hadn't even tried. She was kind of hoping to see Sirius there, make him regret that whole conversation. Because ever since that date, he had been pretty much ignoring him. And no one ignored Ophelia Vander Wende.

They walked quickly to the room where the ball was being held. It was a kind of random room, it was huge, no one really knew what it was actually used for. But it was perfect for this secret party.

There was someone at the door to make sure everyone was wearing masks. Anyone who did have them, or the girls who painted their faces, were all turned away, told to come back when they had their masks.

Ophelia and Beatrice were allowed right in, and they split up. Ophelia went looking for a refreshment table. There wasn't one. That was disappointing. But it added to the theory that the Marauders threw the party. They wouldn't have thought of something like that. She glanced around for her brothers. She knew Nik would be fairly easy to spot. He was tall and muscular. He looked older than eighteen. Adrian would be more difficult as he was on the skinny side, looking like an average seventeen year old. But she didn't see either of them so she kept walking.

"Hello Angel." Ophelia turned to see a young man in a devil mask smiling at her. She tried to figure out the voice, but he was putting it on. It was too deep to be real.

"Lucifer." She replied as a greeting. The Devil just grinned wider.

"Care to dance?" He held out a hand to her. She stared at it a moment.

"Sure." She took his hand and he led her out to the dance floor. His placed one strong hand on her shoulder blade, his other clasped her hand and they began to waltz. It was standard rich kid practice to learn several different dances. The Waltz was the first one they learned. It was pretty basic, normally. He dance partner had other plans and he twirled her around the floor with grand, sweeping gestures. She smiled, enjoying herself as they floated over the floor. People stopped to watch them as they moved. Ophelia usually didn't pay much attention when it came to dance classes, but he made it easy. The song ended and he bowed to his partner.

"As graceful as you are beautiful." He complimented.

"How can you tell? You can't see my face."

"Because I know who you are. I could pick you out of a crowd of a million, even if you wore a mask to cover your whole face." It was difficult to not get sucked into his kind words.

"I wish I could say the same for you." She still had no idea who he was. He had dark hair, but so did a lot of the school. He was taller than her, she assumed that meant she was in her year or older, but again, that didn't narrow it down by much. And she didn't know every guy in the school. It could have been someone she didn't know.

"Maybe by the end of the night, you'll find out." He gave her a crooked smile and turned to go. She followed him a few steps, but then stopped. She wasn't about to chase this guy down. She turned away and nearly ran into Beatrice.

"Who was that?" She asked.

"I have no idea." Ophelia answered, glancing back over her shoulder. He was gone. She turned to look at Beatrice again. "He didn't show me." She shrugged. She wanted to find out. The music changed, going from sweet, soft waltz music, to fast beat heavy music for everyone to dance to, even the people that didn't know how to waltz. Beatrice grinned and grabbed her friend's hand, pulling her out to the dance floor so they could dance and have a good time.

After an hour or so, Ophelia went looking for the man in the Devil mask again, but couldn't find him. She sighed and placed her hands on her hips. She looked around, seeing her brothers, but they hadn't noticed her yet. Then she saw Severus Snape, he really did have greasy hair, it made it easy to recognize him though. She wrinkled her nose and turned away. Finally she saw him. He was leaning against the wall, watching her. When he saw her find him, he got up and headed in her direction.

"I guess I'm supposed to show you who I am." He smiled

"It would be appreciated." She nodded, biting the inside of her cheek, a bit nervous.

"Well then." He reached up to take the mask off, but before he could, the door opened and a mess of professors poured in.

"Everyone to your dorms. It is past curfew." One of them announced. Ophelia turned to look at the guy, hoping to catch a peek, but she was pushed in the direction of the door before she could get a look at him. She sighed, frustrated, well hopefully he'd come up to her tomorrow and let her know who he really was.


	10. Intervention

Notes: Fun Fact, I love hoarding shows. I'm watching Hoarders as I write this. I watch Hoarders, Hoarding; Buried Alive. I even watch Clean House. It's an addiction and I think I should seek some kind of help.

Chapter Ten  
Intervention

"Are you still pouting?" Beatrice asked.

"Not pouting." Ophelia argued.

"You're pouting. It's been a week, stop it." Beatrice brushed her long hair, then divided it into three sections and braided it with swift, graceful fingers. Ophelia straightened her tie and made a face.

"I honestly though he was going to show me who he was." She sighed.

"Well he didn't."

"I know." She muttered, pulling up her socks. "He was just really great."

"You spoke to him for like, ten minutes." Beatrice rolled her eyes.

"you just don't get it." Ophelia headed for the door. Beatrice followed her and they went to the great hall for breakfast. They took their seats at the Slytherin table and Ophelia picked out two pancakes, putting them on her plate. Then she covered them in thick, sticky brown syrup. Beatrice made a face of her own and then picked out some fruit.

"I don't understand why you eat that stuff, it's so unhealthy."

"but it tastes good, and that's what matters. At least I'll die with a happy stomach.

"You're so disgusting." Beatrice shook her head.

"Love you too." Ophelia quirked an eyebrow, and looked to the Gryffindor table, where a crowd of kids were gathering.

"Bet we know who's in the center of the crowd." Beatrice said, looking over her shoulder.

"All four of them." Ophelia nodded. She thought about getting up to see why everyone was so interested, but she wasn't going to let Sirius have that satisfaction. He may have been a childish game, but she was going to play it because she knew he would be. Beatrice shrugged and turned back around, eating her fruit.

It was time for yet another potions class. Ophelia had grown to dread them because she had to sit there and actually watch Sirius completely ignore her. She didn't want to let on that it bugged her, but it really did. She wasn't use to being ignored. She walked into the room, heading for her chair, stopping when Lily Potter pushed past her and sat in the seat next to Severus. Ophelia stared at her a moment.

"That's my seat." She said.

"Not today." Lily said curtly. James and the marauders walked in and froze when they saw Lily and Severus.

"You know you're not doing him any favors." Ophelia informed her. "This is just going to upset James and he'll torment Snape even more than he already does."

"I need to talk to Severus. James can deal with it."

"That's fine, but I still need a place to sit." Lily's partner had already found someone new to sit with. Ophelia looked around the room. They weren't assigned partners, but everyone usually sat with the same people every day, so she had no idea where to go.

"Miss Vander Wende, take a seat." Professor Slughorn walked in and nodded at the seat in front of her.

"That's James's-"

"Sit." Slughorn repeated. She sighed and sat down. The others all found places to sit, Peter forced to find a new partner as James sat next to Remus. Ophelia glanced at Sirius, who was copying down the instructions. She assumed he didn't want to be her partner. She bit her lip and looked at the ingredients on the table. She reached out to start measuring things, reading over the instructions before getting started. She'd learned the hard way that sometimes they're meant to go in in a certain order. Severus had nearly ripped her arm out of the socket when she tried to put something in too early. She glanced at Sirius, who was watching her.

"That's right. He assured her, she dropped it in the kept measuring out what went in first. She finished that as Sirius chopped up a few leaves. He sprinkled them in and nodded at the spoon for her to stir with. "Fifty time clockwise, then thirty counter clockwise." She stood up and stirred it like he said. She was getting better at the potions stuff. She had actually managed to catch a mistake Severus had almost med the day before. Of course he had claimed her was testing her. She glanced back at her old table. Lily was trying to get Snape's attention and he was pointedly ignoring her as he worked on the potion.

"What is that about?" Sirius asked her. He paused to look at the ingredient list and make sure they hadn't forgotten anything.

"I have no idea. I don't talk to him outside of this class." She shrugged. Okay so there was the odd word between the two but they never had actual conversations. She generally avoiding himand his sour attitude, and he never seemed to really be into the idea of spending time with her either.

"But you're in his house."

"Well Lily's in yours, so do you know what it's about?" She looked at him. He shrugged. She picked up another root and a knife, starting to chop the root up. "I honestly don't care what Lily and Severus are- ow!" She pulled her hand back as she accidently cut her hand. Sirius dropped what he was doing and looked at her hand.

"Professor." Sirius looked for Slughorn. The cut was pretty bad and the bleeding wouldn't stop. "Does anyone know the spell to fix the cut?" He asked the class.

"No, I don't want to end up losing my hand." She pulled her hand back. They were only fifth years, they hadn't learned that much yet and she wasn't going to risk something worse happening because they let an untrained student try and fix her cut. Besides, she knew a couple people in the class would mess it up on purpose.

"Slughorn?" Sirius looked around again. The man came out from the supply closet, seeing the cut. He put the things down and walked over to them. He took a look at it, not really seeming to care.

"It's pretty deep. You need to pay attention to what you're doing." He reprimanded.

"I don't feel good." Ophelia informed him. They'd pressed a couple of Tissues from her bag onto the cut, but they were already soaked through.

"Take her to the infirmary wing Black." Slughorn ordered. Sirius nodded and quickly got up, walking with her to the door. He took off his robe, ripping the sleeve off and pressed it to the cut on her hand.

"I really didn't think a hand cut could bleed like this." He muttered, holding it down, for pressure. She leaned against him as they walked.

"I really don't feel well." She repeated. He sighed and picked her up. She was small enough that it didn't bother him. He carried her to the infirmary wing, where the nurse took over She helped Ophelia get the cut cleaned up and ordered her to stay there the rest of the day, giving her various potions. Sirius sat by her the whole day, telling her stories and entertaining her. By the end of the day she was released for dinner and he walked her to the great hall.

"I'll talk to you later Phe." He smiled at her.

"Yeah, I guess you will." She smiled back. "And sorry again about your robe," She added as she headed for her table, ignoring the glares her brother was giving her.

* * *

That evening, Ophelia and Beatrice were walking back to the Slytherin dorms. They had just come in the door when two pairs of hands grabbed Ophelia, leading her back out.

"What in the- Let me go!" Ophelia struggled against her brothers as they dragged her into an unused room. "What in the hell is wrong with you?" she snapped at them as they let her go.

"This is an Intervention." Adrian locked the door and stood in front of it.

"I'm not on drugs."

"This would be easier if you were." Nik muttered. She shot a confused look at him.

"This isn't about drugs Ophelia, this is about your inability to get away from Sirius Black." Adrian explained.

"Oh my god." Ophelia muttered. "I wasn't with Sirius, well I was but… I cut my hand in potions and he carried me to the hospital wing when I nearly passed out from blood loss."

"You had potions this morning, why were you with him at dinner?"

"Not that it's your business, but he stayed with me in the hospital wing, I was there for hours and he kept me from losing my mind."

"It is our business Ophelia. I know you don't like to hear it, but you're still young and we don't' want anything bad to happen to you."

"You're only Seventeen Adrian, two years older than me." Ophelia pointed out. Adrian and Nik had both been born after the cutoff date for the Hogwarts year above theirs, making them two of the oldest in each of their years.

"It doesn't have anything to do with age, but maturity." He argued. "You are very young. You've never had to worry about guys because you had us to protect you. But you don't need to make the job more difficult by hanging out with dogs like Sirius Black. He's just going to hurt you and you don't that."

"Because then we're going to have to hurt him and I know you Ophelia, even if he rips your heart out you won't want him to end up hurt." Nik nodded.

"You two are ridiculous. Leave him alone. We're not dating. We're not together. We just talk sometimes. We are in the same year and we had to work together in potions today. I couldn't just ignore him while we were trying to get an A."

"I thought you were partners with Snape." Adrian said. They were fine with that. They knew that Ophelia would never in a million years be into Severus Snape and they were pretty sure Snape wasn't attracted to anyone, ever. Male or Female, he was just too into school work and being brooding.

"It's a stupid story. Anyway, I ended up paired with Sirius. Neither of us asked for it. Slughorn is just a jerk." She shrugged. "Now, I am going to walk out of this room, and I am going to go do my homework. I'm not running off to meet Sirius for a midnight tryst. I'm not sneaking out to snog in the empty classrooms." She assured them. "And you two should so the same." She added and pushed past Adrian, unlocking the door and walking out, going back to the dorm like she said she was.

Her brothers, however, didn't take her advice and went hunting down the Gryffindor. They found him, alone for once, walking out of the Library. They grabbed him and Nik pushed him against the wall.

"Really, this again? You don't have anything better to do than harrass a fifth year?" Sirius asked them.

"Shut up and listen, Black." Adrian crossed his arms over his chest. "Despite many, many threats and warnings, Ophelia refuses to listen to us and avoid you. So we're going to try something new." Nick pushed Sirius's back harder against the door.

"What?"

"We're going to back off. But in the spirit of full disclosure, we want you to know. If you hurt our little sister, if you break her heart, if we ever see her crying over your stupid arse, we will hunt you down and kill you." Adrian nodded.

"And if we find you you've tried anything with her, we'll kill you." Nik added.

"And what if she tries anything with me?" Sirius asked. Nik pushed his fist against Sirius's chest, the fifteen year old coughed. "No trying anything, got it." He nodded and the older boy let up.

"Remember that, because I swear on my grandfather's grave, if anything happens to compromise our sister's reputation, or her heart, you will not live to see sixteen." Adrian nodded and Nik dropped the boy. "Don't tell Ophelia about this. It'll be the start of our trust in you." Adrian brushed dust off the boy's shoulder. "Got it?"

"Got it." Sirius nodded, as they walked down the hall he smirked to himself. Well he got permission from Two Vander Wendes to date Ophelia, now he just needed the permission of one more of them… Ophelia herself.


	11. Third Time's the Charm

**Note:** If this chapter is late. It's because I've been strolling through wtfbadromancecovers on tumblr… and in public. I'm at school. That is all

**Chapter Eleven  
Third Time's the Charm**

The day after getting the go ahead from her brother, Sirius made his move. He was reinvigorated, but he wasn't totally sure why. Her brothers had never really been a problem. He never worried about them or what they would do to him. But regardless of the reason, Sirius wanted desperately to get Ophelia to go out with him. And he proceeded to do everything he could think of to get her to agree, and finally she broke down,

"Fine. Last chance, Hogsmeade, no shrieking shack and if it goes sound I will never speak to you again." She snapped at him before turning and walking away. He went back to his dorm to celebrate, only to find a rat on Peter's bed, with Remus trying to coach him back into human form, and James laughing uncontrollably on the bed.

Finally, Sirius though as he woke up Saturday morning. It was time to get ready for his date. He didn't dress up, knowing the Ophelia would just laugh at him for being dressed to the nines. Besides, he knew that he looked good no matter what he wore. He walked out of the school and buttoned up his coat. It was November and it was cold. He waited for Ophelia and after a few minutes she appeared.

She wore pants, it was too cold for anything else, and a warm looking purple coat that brought out her bright blue eyes. He felt his heart pound but he quickly told himself it was because of the cold. Sirius Black didn't do love. He wanted to date her because she had been turning him down. He was going to keep it up until they had a good date.

At least that's what he told himself.

"Ready to go?" She asked when she got to him. The cold had already gotten to her, turning her cheeks and nose red. She shivered and crossed her arms.

"Yeah, let's get you something warm before you freeze to death."

"I have little tolerance for cold. I usually bundle up in the Slytherin Common room." She half joked, walking towards the little village.

"So do I have to find us a little place to hang out where no one will see us?"

"You could, but I won't go there. I need to pick up a few things for Christmas, and seeing as I agreed to this date, you'll just have to go with me." She shrugged. He smiled, he knew, in Ophelia Speak, that was her way of saying she wasn't totally embarrassed to be seen with him. That was something else that drove him crazy. Most girls bragged about dating him, she didn't want anyone to know.

"Speaking of, what do you want for Christmas?" He asked.

"I never tell people." She shook her head. "I prefer to be surprised and if I don't like it, then that's one less thing to clutter my room." She looked at him and smiled. "My brother says that's a very cold way to think, but I like for people to have to really think about my Christmas presents, thinking about what I would like." She shrugged.

"That makes zero sense." Sirius informed her.

"I don't care. As a human being, it is my right to not make any sense."

"Yeah, you're exercising that right, maybe a little too much." He smiled at her and she shoved him. He stumbled a bit and laughed, walking back over to her. They walked into the little town and she led him to Honeydukes. She bought herself a couple bags of candy and he bought a couple things, making mental notes of what she bought, because it meant she liked it.

She walked out of the candy shop and looked back at him. "What about you, do you have any special Christmas requests?" She asked.

"No, if you won't tell me, then I won't tell you." He smiled. "You'll just have to surprise me."

"Alright." She nodded. She already knew what she was going to buy him. It was just a matter of finding it. "You probably won't get it until after Christmas unless you go to the Christmas balls." In the Pureblood circles there were about six or seven balls held around Christmas, her family's was one of them.

"Well I might just have to wait until after Christmas. I avoid those balls like the plague." He informed her. She just shrugged, she wasn't going to fight with him about it.

"Fine, I'll make sure you get it when we get back."

"I don't even think I'm going home for the holidays. I usually don't. Unless James leaves, and Remus leaves." He didn't really plan to stay around just to hang out with Peter. No one wanted to actually spend any one on one time with the boy. Remus put up with it in potions but always complained that Peter was utterly useless and usually managed to mess something up that Remus would have to fix in order to keep them both from failing, or killing whatever the potion was fed to.

"Well why don't you go to James's?" She asked.

"I don't want to be a burden to his parents. They've always been really nice to me and I don't want to ruin their family Christmas." She stared at him a moment. Was that Sirius who just said he didn't want to be annoying? She had to have heard wrong. "Let's get something to eat, I'm starving." He nodded.

"Alright." She shrugged and the moment was over, he was back to the Sirius she'd always known. They found a place to eat, Restaurants were few and far between out in Hogsmeade, where most just went home to eat. But they had a couple of places.

after eating their lunch, the two of them just walked around for a while before finding a place to sit down and just talk.

"So, have you heard anything about Regulus and what we overheard?"

"So you do acknowledge that you heard something?" He asked.

"Sirius." She sighed. "I never denied hearing anything. I just didn't want to get involved." He shook his head.

"Yeah, I know." He didn't want to fight with her about it again. "No I haven't heard anything about it. No action was taken, Regulus hasn't brought it up and Dumbledore certainly isn't about to tell me anything if he heard it." Sirius hated that he wasn't able to see his brother be taken down for his bigoted ways, but he would settle for waiting until they had solid proof. Because the more he thought about it, his mum would have freaked out and probably turned her psycho-wrath on the school if Regulus had been punished based solely on the testimony of the son she hated.

Because there was not a doubt in Sirius's mind that his mother hated him. She never out and out said it because she didn't need to, they both knew it.

"Well if there is anything to be found, Dumbledore would find it."

"Would he?"

"What do you mean?"

"I know Dumbledore takes this seriously, but I don't think he'd want to hear that a fourteen year old is running with Voldemort, especially a fourteen year old in his school." Ophelia thought about that.

"Well the alternative is to ignore it and let Regulus recruit people all over the school. And I don't think he would want that. So I disagree with you. I think, if there is something to be found, Dumbledore will find it and take care of the problem. " Sirius just shrugged.

"I hope you're right." He said. He didn't hold much faith anyone though, especially when it came to Regulus. He'd gotten away with so much and in Sirius's life, the people around him tended to prefer Regulus, because he was the perfect on. All because he believed that ridiculous idea that purebloods were better. He looked at Ophelia and reached out, moving her hair out of her eyes. She looked up at him, a bit surprised and smiled.

"Is that one of your moves?" She asked.

"What?"

"One of your moves that leaves girls' knees weak and convinces them to date you even though you've got a trail of broken hearts behind you?"

"You're here on a date with me despite my broken heart trail."

"Yeah well, as my brothers like to remind me, I have no sense of self preservation." She shrugged. He gave her a half smile.

"Yeah? And now you listen to what your brothers say?"

"Not if I can avoid it. But once in a blue moon something they say imbeds itself in my head and I realize they're not totally wrong on that fact, though ninety percent of the time, they are very, very wrong." She shrugged. He laughed and held a hand out to help her up. She took it and pulled herself up, brushing off the back of her pants.

"We should head back to the castle, it's getting colder." He noted. She nodded in agreement and walked with him back to the castle.

"If you weren't a Gryffindor, what house do you think you'd be in?" She asked.

"Ravenclaw." He answered. She shook her head.

"No, I think you'd be a Slytherin." He glared at her.

"I would never be a Slytherin."

"there is nothing wrong with being a Slytherin. I don't get why everyone hates us so much."

"Most Slytherins are prejudice, cocky little wankers."

"Thanks." She deadpanned.

"Most." He repeated.

"That's not their house that does it though. And Cockiness is a trait for all the houses, except maybe Hufflepuff. You Gryffindors can be right gits, look at yourself and James. And Ravenclaws are the same way, but they're cockier about their knowledge. And we're not all prejudice." She added. "One can be a bigot and not in Slytherin. I think you would have made a great Slytherin." She shrugged. She liked her house and she found it really annoying when people said bad things about the Slytherins. The other houses had just as many flaws.

"James and I are not cocky." He argued.

"You are the most cocky person I have ever met in my life Sirius." She looked at him. "Sometimes it seems a bit put on. No one is actually that full of themselves." He frowned, thinking about that. No one had ever said that to him before. No one noticed if he was faking his good mood, well James did, but he learned to. He had spent enough time with Sirius to notice things like that. He shook his head.

"Nope, I really am that cocky, it's hard not to be when you're this awesome." He smiled at her. She didn't smile back.

"I'm not stupid Sirius. I notice a lot more than people give me credit for. You claim people can't hurt you. That what your family does doesn't get to you. But I see it, every time your mum sends Regulus a care package. I see the look." She informed him.

"I wasn't aware you paid so much attention to me." He said.

"it's hard not to, you're just so captivating." She shrugged. He grinned, sincerely.

"You're so strange." He informed her.

"Thanks." She said as they walked up to the castle. He stopped her from going in, leaning in close to her.

"Sometimes it sucks, my own parents hating me, but the alternative is acting like them to make them love me and I could never do that." He shook his head. "I have to be myself, no matter what my parents think."

"But you're not always being yourself if you have to put on a mask of happiness." She looked up at him.

"Well it's easier to do that than having people ask me what's wrong. Because they never really want to know.

"Some of us do." She argued with him. He looked at her a moment more, and then leaned down, kissing her. Her lips were cold and a bit chapped but that didn't bother him in the least. After a moment they warmed up, just in time for her to pull back.

"I've wanted to do that since our first date." He smiled and turned to walk away, leaving her standing there. After he was gone, a small smile formed on her lips and she turned to walk into the castle.


	12. Family Duty

**Chapter Twelve  
Family Duty**

Finally, it was time for the Christmas holiday. All the students were packing their bags and headed for the train to go home for a glorious two weeks. Ophelia was among them, but she had brothers to carry her bags for her. And they did it without too much complaint. Each of them were carrying one of her bags, she was switching out her fall clothes for her spring, like she did every year at this time. She had said goodbye to Sirius before heading out with her brothers, because she was pretty sure he was going to be staying at Hogwarts despite the fact that James and Remus were both going home to see their families.

They all got on the train and found a car. She sat down and got comfortable while her brothers put her luggage up in the bin, then headed out, leaving her alone in the car. It wasn't long though before Beatrice found her and sat down opposite her, stretching her long legs out over the seat.

"Do you really need to take up that much space?" Ophelia asked.

"Why are you waiting for someone? Like your new snogging buddy?" Beatrice teased.

"I don't have a snogging buddy." Ophelia blushed lightly. Beatrice laughed.

"Liar. I saw the two of you in the hall yesterday."

"We were saying goodbye." She shook her head. "Sirius is staying at the castle for the holidays."

"Can't say I blame him." Beatrice shrugged. She'd never met Walburga Black in person, but she'd heard enough stories to know the woman was a monster. Completely out of her mind if the stories were to be believed. And while stories weren't always the best thing to go by, these stories were too crazy to be made up. "did his mum really beat him on a daily basis?"

"Possibly. Walburga never liked kids. So when Sirius or Regulus would act like kids, she'd get angry." Few pureblood mothers actually wanted kids. Kids ruined their figure and were just annoying, but all Pureblood men demanded on children, they did, after all, need an heir or two to carry on the family name and keep the pureblood lines running. Her father just happened to get four chances to keep their family name going.

"Are you excited to see your family?" Beatrice asked, changing the subject.

"Kind of." She shrugged. "No more than usual. Chances are we'll go home. Do nothing for a while, have a nice dinner then mum will tell me when we're going dress shopping for the balls and off to bed."

"How many dresses?" Beatrice asked.

"One for each ball. Can't be seen in the same one twice." Rich pureblood women always had a variety of dresses to choose from, but Ophelia always got hers rented because she was still growing, so it would be silly to buy all those dresses when they probably wouldn't fit at all the next year.

"How many balls?" Beatrice asked. She was interested in this stuff, she wished she could go to the balls, but she was never invited. Her family wasn't important. Her father was a half blood and her mum was a muggle born, meaning there was too much muggle in her to be invited to pureblood parties.

"Six I think. One of them was cancelled because someone died if I'm not mistaken."

"Oh god."

"At least they bothered to cancel. Last year, Lucius Malfoy's grandfather died and they still had their ball, the day after the funeral if I'm not mistaken." Beatrice looked horrified.

"Balls are important to them because it's a chance to show off how much money they have. The Malfoys were throwing this hugely elaborate ball because it was the first one Lucius's wife had planned and she needed it to be big enough to stick in everyone's minds, and she wasn't about to let it go because of the death of an old man no one actually liked anyway." Ophelia crossed her legs and pulled out a magazine

"That's horrible." Beatrice said.

"It is, but seriously, if you met the man, you'd understand. He was just a terrible person. His funeral was packed of course, I think everyone just wanted to make sure he was really dead, and wasn't going to appear out of the blue to make people miserable again."

"Ophelia." Beatrice looked at her in shock. "The man is dead."

"Yeah, definitely. They put a permanent sticking charm on the lid of the coffin, just to make sure."

"That's not funny." Beatrice snapped, looking at her friend with slight horror in her eyes. She didn't find ill talk of the dead funny at all.

"It's not meant to be. I'm being serious." Ophelia turned a page in her magazine. Beatrice frowned and pulled a book out of her bag, settling down to read. They stayed quiet for the rest of the trip, parting ways with a good bye when they got to the train station. Ophelia didn't take long to find her family. Adrian and Nik got there first and so there were three very tall young men, as well as her mother and her sister in law, all waiting for her.

"Oh… he came." Ophelia said, seeing the tiny baby in her sister in law's arms.

"His name is Nigel." Juliet smiled. It was her and Stanford's first child, and they were thrilled that it was a little boy. The two hadn't been married that long, but that was how it went in the Pureblood circles, one usually married young and started having children so they could ensure they would have a boy to carry on the family name.

"and he's already spoiled." Adelaide said, looking at the little boy then up at Juliet, who was still smiling at her son.

"I'd pretend to be shocked but I don't feel like it. Dad and Sebastian couldn't make it?" Ophelia asked.

"They're working." Stanford replied. He looked like he always had, demanding respect and attention with his straight posture and strong stance. His brown hair fell over his forehead. He and Adrian looked a lot alike honestly. But don't tell that to Adrian, he didn't like the idea of looking like his older brother, at all.

It was the way of the dysfunctional family.

They all went to apperate home, Ophelia piggy backing with Nikolas. They appeared in the front hall of the family manor and went their separate ways. Ophelia went straight up to her room, where her bags were waiting. She unpacked them by hand. She couldn't use magic at home, and besides she preferred to do this by hand, after she got her brother to un-shrink them all anyway. When she was done she started picking out her next collection of clothes to take to school. It would take her the entire break to pick them all. And she knew she'd get new clothes for Christmas, that was just how it worked.

Ophelia sat on the bed, surrounded by her clothes. She picked up a sweater, taking a look at it. She made a face and threw it away from the bed, letting it fall in the corner of the room all crumbled up. She leaned back and crossed her ankles. She was trying to picture what Sirius would be doing in that moment. Honestly, he was probably getting into trouble because he was bored and didn't have anything else to do. He didn't have anyone to distract his attention from causing trouble.

"Ophelia?" She looked up to find her mother in the doorway. Ophelia quickly sat up.

"Yes?" She asked. Her mother almost never came to her room. Adelaide Vander Wende glanced around, the room had been redecorated since the last time she'd been there. Ophelia like to redecorate every summer. It gave her something to do other than lay around by the pool. This time around her room was done mostly in whites, with a plush white bed spread. But she was already thinking about what she was going to do for the next summer.

"We're going shopping tomorrow morning for the dresses." She informed her daughter. Adelaide had always thought all she wanted was a daughter, someone to go shopping with and talk girl things with, and of course she ended up with four sons. Her fifth pregnancy was her last ditch effort to have the baby girl she'd always wanted. And she got what she wanted. But she quickly realized it would be a long time before she could actually enjoy spending any time with her daughter. Little girls weren't as messy as little boys, but they were still little. And now she had to sit there and watch as her daughter got more beautiful and she herself got older, more lines settled into her face and she found she was sagging a little more every year. She was still hoping to enjoy time with her daughter when she got older, but she'd have to wait and see.

"Alright, I'll be ready." Ophelia nodded.

"Ophelia, there is something else I wanted to talk to you about." Adelaide said, Ophelia looked up at her expectantly.

"Yes?"

"I have been hearing rumors."

"Yes, that's nothing new." Ophelia shut up when her mother shot her a look.

"It's come to my attention that you've been spending time with Sirius Black." Adelaide accused. Ophelia bit her lip and shrugged. "Ophelia, I don't want you hanging around that boy." Ophelia resisted the urge to roll her eyes, she'd managed to get her brother to leave her alone about it and now she was going to have to hear her mum give her a hard time about Sirius? She leaned back.

"He's not that bad."

"Ophelia, he's insolent, he's spoiled. He goes on about how much he hates his parents and his family, yet he allows them to buy him what he wants."

"What he needs. There is a difference."

"Ophelia, his reputation is horrible. Do you know what people will think of you if you are seen with him. They will think you're a whore and an easy girl. Your reputation will go down the tubes very quickly. Do you want to embarrass your family like that?"

"No... anyway it's not a big deal. Sirius and I aren't... anything." She shrugged. She hated to say it, because she knew it wasn't true and she knew that it would hurt Sirius if he heard it but... she didn't want this. She didn't want this conversation to happen, and she didn't want to embarrass her family. They may not have been perfect but they were all she had. She knew friends could come and go but her family was forever. They did everything for her, everything she needed, everything she wanted, they would go to the ends of the earth to get for her.

"Good, and keep it that way." Adelaide nodded. "Because you are a good girl and you will grow up, marry a respectable young man and have a family you'll love as much as I love mine." That was a depressing thought. That was the opposite of what Ophelia wanted. She didn't want to grow up just to marry a man and have a family. She wanted adventure, she wanted to travel. She wanted to live her life so that when she did get married and have a family she didn't resent them for existing. That was how her mother felt about them, Ophelia was sure of it.

"Dinner will be served at Seven." She nodded and turned, walking out of the room. Ophelia bit her lip and grabbed her favorite, softest pillow, hugging it to her chest, she had a lot of thinking to do. There was no way she could do that to her family. They had worked too hard to build up their reputation as a family for what? For her to tear it all down because of a crush? No, she couldn't do that to them. She had a duty to her family, even if it meant her own heart breaking.

* * *

So From now on my notes are going to go down here because... I want it to. Actually it's because I write my chapters in advance and it's just easier to add notes in on the bottom before I post. I have the next... ten chapters outlined, It looks like this is going to be a fairly long story that will be fueled by coffee and by beef ramen. Because that's what the cool kids eat.

Reviews are appreciated

Issy


	13. The Christmas Eve Ball

**Chapter Thirteen  
The Christmas Eve Ball**

It was Ball season and most of the girls in the Pureblood community were excited. They were going on and on about the dresses and the decorations. They talked about boys they danced with; some of them were old enough to be seriously thinking about marriage and what they were going to be doing with the rest of their lives.

Ophelia did not share in their glee.

She found herself often times thinking about Sirius and how upset he would be if he found out what she told her mum. She wasn't going to stop seeing him; she just had to find a way to keep it more secretive. She knew her brothers wouldn't tell if she asked them not to. The problem was going to be the other people. Ophelia knew that her brothers wouldn't have told their mum, so the others must have been where she heard it in the first place. The Vander Wende Siblings had an unwritten agreement that they just didn't tell their parents anything that had to do with Hogwarts. If they acting like hellions in Hogwarts, their parents weren't going to hear it from them.

Ophelia was getting ready for her own family's ball. It was held in the Vander Wende's grand ball room, on Christmas Eve. Everything was set up perfectly for the occasion. It was of course a winter dance and the goal was to out do every other ball that had already happened. Only one came after the Vander Wende ball, so they had four of them to live up to. Adelaide spent almost all year planning the ball, and was currently running around like a crazy person getting everything fixed up to perfection, because she would accept nothing less.

Ophelia ignored the knot in her stomach as she had a professional team of people helping her with her hair and her make up. It was necessary for her to look perfect and that meant a lot of work by trained professionals. They all talked to each other, but didn't talk much to her. Honestly when they did speak to her she usually missed it because she thought they were talking to each other.

By the time they were finished she felt so prodded and yanked on. She looked good but she felt like she was dressing up to be sold. Her hair was in a nice soft style, her make up was very natural. She was too young to really need that much make up to look good. She sighed and went to put her dress on.

Normally she loved this. She really loved to get dressed up and primped up to look good but this ball season it just felt like a waste of time. She didn't want any of those guys out there. She didn't really care to impress them. She got the dress on and went to look in the mirror. It was a beautiful dress. It was long and made of silk. The pale pink fabric draped over her gracefully and with her hair and make up she looked twenty five, not fifteen. She slipped on her shoes and smoothed her dress. She looked perfect. But she didn't feel it.

By eight o'clock everyone had shown up and the ball was in full swing. There were waiters with little hor d'oeuvres, and glasses of champagne. The general thinking was, if you were old enough to attend the ball, you were old enough to drink champagne. Which led to a lot of drunken teenagers, but they had their parents around to keep them from getting lost and getting in any serious trouble. Ophelia had a glass in her hand and was sipping on it. She had already downed three of them in the kitchen, so she was ready to sip for the rest of the night. She was half listening to Forsyth Goyle talk about his life after Hogwarts. He was working in the same profession as his father. He was unmarried and apparently looking to change that.

"Well best of luck with that." Ophelia nodded and turned to walk away. She downed the rest of her champagne and grabbed another glass, okay, this one would be sipped. She walked through the party, not really paying attention to who she was talking to, until she heard her name. She turned and headed over to her mother, who looked stunning in an emerald green gown.

"Ophelia, I would like to introduce you to someone." Adelaide said to her daughter. She smiled charmingly to the boy on her right. Ophelia knew him, of course, they went to the same school, but he was a year older than her.

"Alistair Cassadine." Ophelia said "I know him." He was a good looking young man, with slightly curly brown hair and bright green eyes. His older brother was friends with Stanford, and they were a respectable pure blood family.

"Yes, well, Alistair and I were just talking about how amazing you look tonight." Alistair blushed when her mother said that. Ophelia quirked an eyebrow and looked at her mother suspiciously.

"Yes? And?" She could feel the knot in her stomach tightening. She was only fifteen, she had two years before marriage was even a possibility.

"I just wanted to introduce the two of you." Adelaide smiled. She had a glint to her eye that made Ophelia even more nervous. No, she wouldn't put it past her mother to start planting the seeds of a marriage at this age. Honestly if she really thought about it, she was surprised a marriage hadn't been arranged for her. It sometimes still happened.

"Well We've been introduced." Ophelia glanced around, doing a double take when she saw Sirius. At first she thought she was seeing things, but he smiled at her, and then she heard her mum give a small, angry, gasp. Ophelia quickly shook her head when he started to take a step towards them. He stopped, his smile fading as she looked away.

"I can't believe he would dare to come. I can't believe Walburga would allow it. Excuse me." Adelaide smiled at Alistair and quickly walked away. Ophelia looked at the man and smiled softly.

"Me too." She said, heading towards the door, in the direction Sirius had walked off in. She slipped out of the ball room, putting down her glass of champagne. It should have been cold, but there had been a warmth charm cast over the garden so people could come out and appreciate the beautiful work the gardeners had done. There he was, staring out at the flowers. There was a slight breeze, causing his hair to flutter in the wind. He'd recently gotten it trimmed she noticed, when she left school it had been a little too shaggy and she'd said as much. Now it was a bit shorter and the split ends were trimmed away.

"Sirius?" She asked softly. He turned and looked at her. She could see the hurt in his eyes, it hit her like a punch to the chest. She took a deep breath to try and calm herself down before she spoke. It wouldn't do any good to start the conversation by bursting into tears. Then again… it could work.

"What?" He snapped at her. She was a bit surprised by the venom in his tone.

"What… are you doing here?" She asked him.

"I thought I would surprise you. Turns out I was the surprised one." He said coldly. She bit her lip.

"Can we go inside?" She asked. "And talk?" She didn't want to do this where people could come out and see it. Not because she was embarrassed to be seen in front of him, but because she knew it would draw a crowd which wasn't good for either of them. She reached up and toyed with the necklace she had borrowed from her mum. It matched the dress nicely, but by the end of the night she'd have to return it to her mother. And if anything happened to it, Ophelia would not live to see Christmas day.

"I don't want to talk to you." Sirius muttered.

"Please?" She begged quietly. She walked closer to him. "Just come up and listen to me for a minute." He sighed and nodded. She led him up the set of outdoor stairs and into the home. She waited for him to get in then locked the door. She led him up a few flights of stairs to her bedroom. He looked around the stark white bedroom and quirked an eyebrow.

"This isn't what I expected."

"What did you expect?" She asked him as she closed her doors, turning the lock and pulling the old fashioned key out, putting it on the large white desk.

"I don't know, something pink maybe. Or gold." He shook his head. "No, I would think of you having a Slytherin Silver room." He nodded.

"Being a Slytherin isn't my life." She shook her head and smoothed down her dress.

"Whatever." He shrugged. "I'm up here, now talk." He crossed his arms over his chest. She bit her lip gently.

"I wasn't going to do this, I wasn't going to tell you."

"Tell me what?"

"My mum doesn't want me to be around you. Out of a twisted sense of loyalty to your mum."

"So? Since when do you care about my mum?"

"She also," Ophelia paused, thinking of a way to put it, "You have a reputation Sirius. Not just because you're not a happy pureblood. But you have a reputation for being a ladies man. And my mum is worried about the damage you could do to my reputation and,"

"And to your family's reputation." He finished for her. She didn't say anything, just looked down. "Are you freaking kidding me Ophelia?" he asked. She looked up at him with a frown. "You would rather live a miserable life with Alistair Cassadine than have your family be mad at you for a little while? And why is it you have to give up but they aren't willing to do the same for you?" He asked her.

"You don't,"

"I don't get it, because I don't care what my family thinks, you're right I don't get it. I don't get the idea of letting myself live miserably to take care of my family's reputation, which is a joke anyway. Because we all know what's going to happen when it gets out that your brother is a-"

"Shut up." She snapped at him. "Don't talk about my brother." She demanded. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Sirius, they're my family."

"Ophelia, if they really loved you, they'd want you to be happy. They'd care more about you than about what a group of snobby gits thinks of them." Ophelia stared at him; she didn't know what to say. She had been raised to think of family first. Family mattered more than anything else, the family was more important than the individual because it was selfish to do something stupid that could result in a family member losing an opportunity. He stared a her a moment long.

"Ophelia." He said, walking to the desk and picking up the key. He put it in the lock and turned it. "If you honestly would give me up because your mother told you to," He paused and looked back at her, "I couldn't love you anymore." He said and walked out. She stood there a moment, completely shocked. That was not what she expected. It was a joke right? Sirius Black didn't love anyone. He couldn't… right? She knew as soon as she asked herself the question. There was no way it wasn't real. She walked out to catch him, She ran down the hall after him,

"Sirius!" She called after him. He stopped and turned around to look at her and she caught up to him, She didn't say anything, just wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

* * *

Alright, Thirteen down a million and twelve to go! Oh if any of you have tumblrs, or if you're just interested, I do have two tumblrs, a personal one, and one for the Vander Wendes. They're actually a pretty epic family in my Roleplaying world. Also I have little bits tossed in there that have to do with the story. Links are in my profile.

Last note, I am looking for some awesome fan fics to read. i've been writing but not reading and that's not cool. I like Harry Potter (obviously), Glee, Divergent, Percy Jackson, um... okay I like a lot of things but I can't think of them off the top of my head, but make your suggestions and I will check them out unless i have never heard of the fandom.

Reviews are appreciated.

Issy


	14. Christmas

**Chapter Fourteen**  
**Christmas**

After she'd caught up to him, the two had a good time, holed up in her room talking and just being together. Eventually though, it had to end because he had to go home. Not that he wanted to. He left, promising her he'd talk to her the next day.

The next morning Ophelia woke up with a small smile, it was Christmas. She didn't care that she was fifteen and wasn't supposed to get so excited about Christmas anymore but she couldn't help it. She loved Christmas. She got dressed and headed downstairs, where her family was waiting, well part of her family. Her oldest brother, Sebastian, sat on the couch, talking to their mother quietly. On the other side of the couch was Stanford, in an animated conversation with Silas, their father, about something. Probably business, knowing the two of them, then Juliet sat with little Nigel, entertaining him. Ophelia walked over and sat down, a cup of tea appearing for her. The house elves knew exactly how she liked it. She picked it up and took a sip, it was perfect. She leaned back and took another drink.

"Ophelia, where did you go last night? I didn't see you." Adelaide interrupted her own conversation with her eldest son.

"I wasn't feeling well so I went to my room." Ophelia answered. It wasn't really a lie. She'd been in her room, and when she went up there she'd felt awful. But not because she was sick, just because of what she'd done to Sirius. Adelaide nodded, but didn't look convinced. Ophelia was saved from further explanation by her brothers. Nik and Adrian walked down the stairs, still looking exhausted. They plopped down on the floor, the only available seats and then the presents opening was ready to start.

Silas waved his wand and the gifts sorted themselves, flying to the people they were intended for. Each of them had a pretty decent sized pile in front of them, but Nigel's was the biggest. The boy was barely a month old and he had a pile of gifts that was about five times bigger than he was. Then it was time to rip the paper off. Ophelia got clothes mostly. Her family knew that was what she liked. She held up each article of clothing to decide if she liked it, each time she thanked whoever got it for her. Anything she didn't like she was going to return, but they didn't need to know that right now.

She managed to catch as each member of her family opened what she got them. Her father got a box of his favorite cigars; her mother got a new necklace, something simple she could wear on a causal day. Then she'd gotten each of her brothers a gift. For Sebastian it was cuff-links with SVW engraved on them. Stanford received a tie, because he really did appreciate those kinds of things. Nik and Adrian both got new family Crest rings, everyone in the family had a piece of jewelry with the family crest on it, but their rings were too small, now they had bigger ones. For Juliet, a blouse and for the baby, a couple of cute little outfits.

Juliet grinned when she saw the outfits. She adored her little boy and was more excited about the things for him than the things for herself. That was the kind of mother Adelaide had never been. Juliet loved to spend time with the boy and while she knew, eventually, she would have to look into a nanny to help her out, for now she wanted to be there for her baby boy. She didn't want someone else to wake up with him, to give him his baths. While Ophelia was still at a point where babies made her nervous and a little sick, she admired how much Juliet cared for her son, especially since she'd hadn't been totally thrilled at the idea of marrying Stanford in the first place. It had been pretty much arranged for them. But Juliet got over it and got a baby out of the deal. So apparently it wasn't that bad.

Finally they had finished opening the gifts. Sebastian, Stanford, Juliet and Nigel were going to stick around until Christmas dinner. But they banished their gift to their homes. Adrian and Nik did the same thing, sending their gifts to their room. But seeing as she was underage, Ophelia had to carry her piles of clothes up to her room, because no one would send them up for her. But it was fine. She laid them out on her bed, admiring them. Ophelia Vander Wende was obsessed with clothing. She had a massive closet to prove it. Her closet was the size of a lot of master bedrooms. She went to get hangers so she could put it all away exactly as she wanted it. She'd been so absorbed with what she was doing, that she didn't hear her fireplace whoosh to life, nor did she hear anyone coming through it. She didn't realize she wasn't along until she walked back into her room and found Sirius lying on her bed.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, trying to get over the surprise. He smiled

"Merry Christmas to you too Phe." He got off the bed. "Get changed, we're going out." She glanced at the door then back at him, confused. "We're going to Prongs's… James's house." He explained. "We'll go through your fireplace. His parents invited me, I asked if I could bring a friend and they said I could, so put on something warm because we're going to be out in the snow."

"It's not snowing." Ophelia looked out the window.

"Ophelia, James doesn't live in Italy." The Vander Wende family home was in southern Italy.

"Well I know that but…" She didn't really have anywhere to go from there. She did realize that it could snow in one country and not another. Sirius grinned.

"Come on Vander Wende, warm clothes, gloves, all that, we're going to be late." He pointed to her closet. She walked back in and when she came out she was dressed for warmth, even more so than she had on the November Hogsmeade trip. Sirius walked back to the fireplace, dipping his hand into the little bowl of powder sitting on the mantle and tossed it n. the flames turned green and he stepped in, yelling out the location of James' home. Ophelia waited for him to vanish before running to lock her door, then following him through the fireplace.

James's house was a cute little place. And it did nothing to show off how much money the Potter's actually had. They were a very rich pureblood family, but they never went to the balls or bought into the idea that pureblood was the only blood. They generally stayed away from all that. They hadn't been mortified when their son got into Gryffindor, they were proud. Of course it hadn't always been like that, at one point, the Potters were just as bad as any other pureblood family. But they had 'reformed', at least James's parents had. Chances were, there was come branch of Potter that was just as prejudice as everyone else. But they had a different name at this point.

"Hey Padfoot… you brought her?" James frowned when he saw Ophelia.

"Padfoot?" She turned to look at Sirius.

"Nickname, and yeah, I was told I could bring a guest, so I brought Ophelia."

"Great." James muttered

"Merry Christmas to you too James." Ophelia quirked an eyebrow. She didn't think James actually disliked her, they may not have been close friends but she didn't think she'd done anything to make him out and out dislike the idea of spending time with her. A pretty woman with thick dark hair walked into the room, holding a tray of hot chocolate.

"James, don't be rude." She scolded lightly, with a smile on her face. "I'm Clara Potter, James's mother."

"Ophelia Vander Wende." Ophelia introduced herself. She couldn't shake the woman's hand because of the hot chocolate.

"Nice to meet you dear, James, did you say if Remus was coming?"

"Yeah, he'll be here as soon as he and his parents have had breakfast."

"Remus and his family do Christmas breakfast instead of dinner." Sirius explained with a shrug. Ophelia nodded, that didn't sound too odd to her, better than not having any sort of family Christmas meal, like Sirius.

"Alright." She had never actually spent any alone time with this group of boys. She wasn't totally sure what they were going to talk about. They had very little in common. After all they were rambunctious pranksters and she found pranks to be incredibly childish and a waste of time. She bit her lip and took the hot chocolate Clara offered her.

"I think Remus is bringing his cousin or something, so you won't be the odd one out." Sirius smiled. "At least you know us. This girl wouldn't know us from Merlin."

"Except you're not two thousand years old and you don't have a beard that can drag on the ground." Ophelia shrugged

"You know what I mean." Sirius rolled his eyes and smiled at her. She stuck her tongue out, only to hear James groan. "He's bitter because Lily isn't here to force under the mistletoe."

"Ooh, yeah that makes sense." Ophelia nodded. "I could see why that would be a problem." James brightened,

"Ophelia, you're a girl."

"Very good James." Ophelia nodded. He made a face at her.

"Maybe you can tell me why Lily won't go out with me."

"One, you torture her friend, two you act like an arse around her, three the cocky act only gets you in with stupid girls who don't know any better."

"The cocky act worked on you." James pointed out, nodding at Sirius.

"Exactly my point, stupid girls who don't know any better." James smiled at the comment, while Sirius pretended to look hurt.

"That's just not nice. You have fallen for more than my oversized ego."

"Your persistence might have helped, anyway, the point is, grow up and maybe Lily would consider not hating you, even just for a little while." She finished her hot chocolate and the cup refilled itself. James led them up to his room so they could hang out and wait for Remus to show up, he was noticeably warmer towards Ophelia after that.

It was only an hour before Remus showed up with a scrawny girl with mousy brown hair trailing behind him. He didn't look thrilled to have her with him.

"Guys, this is my cousin, Frannie." He deadpanned.

"Frannie?" Ophelia quirked an eyebrow. Sirius looked between the two girls. There was a world of difference between the two. Frannie's entire outfit probably cost as much as Ophelia's gloves. Frannie wore a brown frock with beige socks that needed to be pulled up. He was sure the girl's coat was probably a parka o something that was meant for function, not fashion. Ophelia on the other hand, wore a fashionable purple jumpsuit; her coat down in the closet was turquoise and belted at the waist. That wasn't to say Ophelia was any better for her fashion sense, but it was an interesting contract.

"She's from America." Remus explained. "She and her parents are visiting for the holidays."

"Remy has been showing me around. I was so excited when I found out I was going to meet his friends." Frannie didn't take her eyes off James, who hadn't really even seemed to notice her.

"Remy?" Sirius grinned. The boy blushed.

"What is Ophelia doing here?" He asked.

"I date her now."

"You do?" James and Ophelia asked at the same time. He nodded.

"I do." He affirmed.

"It would have been nice to be told about this." Ophelia placed her hands on her hips.

"I was going to tell you after this." Sirius smiled. She rolled her eyes.

"So what are we going to do?" Remus asked. James grinned.

"I have an idea. Come on," he led the way back down to the front hall, everyone got re-bundled up and went outside. There they divided into two teams, Remus and Frannie against Ophelia, Sirius and James, because James and Sirius were unable to be on opposite teams. Then they spent the rest of the morning throwing snow balls, of course Frannie and Remus got it the worst off.

By the time they went inside for more hot Chocolate, they were all freezing and laughing.

"So why didn't Peter come?" Remus asked. James's eyes widened and he looked at Remus.

"I thought you had invited him."

* * *

Alright, Chapter fourteen done! I know it took a while to get up, but I had a busy weekend. Real life gets in the way of what I really want to do sometimes.

I feel like I should interact more with you guys so... question time: Do any of you Roleplay? Do you know what Roleplay is? Do you realize Roleplay doesn't really need to be captiolized but for some reason I keep doing it?

Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter, I'm enjoying the direction this story is going in, some action is going to be happening in the next couple chapters. So look forward to that!

Issy


	15. By the Light of the Moon

**Chapter Fifteen  
By the Light of the Moon**

They had been back to school for a couple days now. A couple weeks really and it was the day that three of the four friends had been looking forward to. It was the full moon. While Remus looked pale and ill, his friends were bright and excited. They were going on their first moonlit adventure. Remus kept trying to convince them to not go with him, but they were sold. They were going to go with him to the shrieking shack so they could break him out and they'd go out and run amuck, but Remus insisted that, this being their first trip out there on the actual full moon, he wanted to stay in the shack.

They had all been to the shack together before, hence why there were cards and games already there. But never during the full moon, they would use a stick to stop the tree, and then go to the shack to mess around and have a good time. Now they had peter to press the little button and they would be able to go running around, using Sirius and James's size to shepherd Remus around.

"Time is going slower, it's totally going slower." James muttered during class. They were trying to keep quiet about it, for obvious reasons. The boys were unregistered animagi which was illegal, and the school would probably frown upon the idea of them going to the shack to break Remus out so they could run around town and have fun.

Apparently having fun while a werewolf wasn't approved by most.

James and Sirius were restless, excited and not being terribly subtle about the whole thing.

"Seriously, if you have to go to the lavatory, just ask." Ophelia snapped at them as they squirmed, filled with energy that they'd be burning off that night.

Finally it was time. Remus left at the same time he always did on full moon nights and the other boys went up to the dorm to pretend to go to sleep. After the other boys went to sleep, they slipped out using James's cloak and went out to the tree. The Whomping Willow was a huge and kind of terrifying tree. It had no qualms about being the hell out of a student.

"Alright Peter, go on." James encouraged. Peter turned pale and gulped. He transformed, shrinking down into a rat. He slipped under the swinging branched quite easily and pressed the knot that Remus had pointed out to them a couple days before. It took a moment, but the branches froze, allowing the two boys to slip under them and they descended the stairs into the dark, creepy passageway. They'd done it a million times before, so they were sure of the direction as they walked through the dark tunnel, coming out into the dusty shack. They could hear someone upstairs, and heard a cry of pain. They all just stood there, Remus told them that was how it happened, and not to come running if they heard it.

Then came the howl, a sound that chilled them all to their bones, turning their blood to ice.

"Alright, let's do this." James shook his head and transformed. He smoothly transitioned from a five foot 11 inch teenage boy into a large, well-muscled deer. The only bad part were his antlers, they kind of got in the way of everything. Sirius went next, turning into the same large black dog that Ophelia talked to months ago. Peter had transformed back into himself to go down the tunnel and now he went back down to his tiny rat shape before they all managed to get up the stairs.

'Next time' Sirius thought 'We wait until we're already outside to transform' James was having trouble with the antlers, getting up into the stairwell and down the hall. He gave the deer a shove with his nose to move him along a little faster and James turned to glare at him. He just smiled at him… as much of a smile as a dog could give. Turned out, Bucks could glare easier than a dog could smile.

The smell hit him rather quickly, the smell of another canine, but this one was different, it wasn't just a dog, it was a wolf, a human-y wolf, a werewolf.

They pushed the door open and there he was, they had never seen their friend in his wolf form and it was terrifying. He was almost eight feet tall, covered in grey-black fur, he had a long snout with sharp teeth. He looked angry, but they didn't imagine a werewolf could ever really look anything but angry.

Remus had been sure to spend time with them while they were in their animal form, to make sure he recognized their scent, so he couldn't tear them into tiny bits. But it didn't stop him from lungeing at them. Peter freaked out and scampered away, but Sirius and James held their ground. Sirius didn't growl, because that was a challenge, but they didn't back down. Eventually it clicked into Remus's brain that these were friends and he turned, walking back into the room. Sirius trotted in after him with James on his heels

They did decide to go with Remus's suggestion of staying in the shack, so that they could get use to the dynamics. They couldn't push the wolf too far or he'd snap at them. He didn't seriously injure any of them, but Sirius did step on Peter, though none of them could really tell if that was on purpose or if it was an accident.

but Sirius knew it was on purpose, because the little wanker had run off scared.

Towards the end of the night, the three friends left their wolf friend in the shack, sneaking back out of the tree, going into the dorm to fall asleep, but none of them slept very well, still awake when Remus got back, still pale, but looking happier than he usually did after a night in the shack. He had to admit, that it wasn't the worst idea ever.

And from Remus, that was a pretty big compliment.

* * *

The next morning, in the Slytherin girls' dorm, the girls all stumbled their way out of bed, heading for the showers, except for the ones that showered at night. Coming out, wrapped in a towel, Ophelia covered up a yawn.

"So how are things going with Sirius?" Beatrice smirked at her best friend, The blonde was already dressed, sitting on her bed and doing her make up.

"What things?" Ophelia asked, going to get her own make up. She dropped it on the bed so she could get dressed.

"You know what things, Ophelia Vander Wende. You don't even try to pretend to be innocent." Beatrice grinned happily.

"No idea what you're talking about Bea." She smiled and sat down after she'd gotten dressed, the other girls came flooding in and Ophelia shut her mouth. They generally avoided talking about Sirius in front of others, after Ophelia got into a fight with Tansy Marks for making a comment about the boy.

"Someone needs to throw another ball." Tansy commented. "A school one." She added, all the girls in the room, except for Beatrice and one other girl, had spent the majority of their winter break attending balls.

"No, I'm done with social events for the year." Ophelia stood up to put away her stuff. "If I never have to put on another ball gown again, it'll be too soon."

"Aren't you doing the coming out debutante ball this summer?" Tansy asked.

"Not if I can avoid it." Every year there was a big ball for every sixteen year old girl, it marked them old enough to being arranging marriage possibilities. Something Ophelia wasn't looking forward to in the least. "Those dresses are ugly." The tradition was to wear a big puffy sort of dress. And if she was forced to participate, she wasn't going to be wearing one of those monstrosities. She was going to find something she actually liked, tradition be damned.

"I think they look great. They hide big hips and fat arses."

"Not a problem all of us have Tansy." Ophelia smiled sweetly. She looked at Beatrice, who hated this kind of talk, because she didn't go to the balls, she wasn't invited and that actually really did bother her because the other girls in the dorm would always come back with stories about what happened and she was never in on it. "Come on Bea, I'm starving."

"Yeah right, you just want to see Sirius." Tansy argued.

"That too." Ophelia shrugged. People had, obviously, found out she was dating Sirius and a lot of girls had given her a hard time about it, and just as many had offered her advice, most of it being 'break it off with him before he can break your heart'. But she wasn't listening to them. She and Sirius were getting along just fine and she didn't see that changing anytime soon.

Beatrice got up and followed her out of the room.

"I really hate it when you all get started talking about the balls."

"I know, I hate it too, I've lived it, I really don't want a recap of the night's events." Ophelia made a face. Beatrice rolled her eyes.

"You're lucky Ophelia, I would love to go to some of these balls, wear the long, fancy dresses, dance with guys in tuxedos. I think it would be like a fairy tale." Ophelia gave her a look.

"Since when do you care about fairy tales?"

"and he would spin me around the floor like we were dancing on a cloud." She said dreamily.

"Earth to Beatrice. What is wrong with you?" Ophelia quirked an eyebrow, Beatrice did pull out of her fantasy and smiled airily at her friend.

"Nothing is wrong with me. Let's get food, I'm hungry too." Beatrice took her hand and led her up the stairs to the great hall. There they found seat, in their usual place. Ophelia excused herself and went over to say good morning to Sirius, who looked like he could use another twelve hours of sleep.

"What were you up to last night that kept you up?" She asked, quirking an eye brow at her boyfriend. He just smiled tiredly at her.

"Grand adventures, Phe, grand adventures."

"You are so strange." She shook her head and turned around, going back to her table. She stopped when she saw Beatrice talking to Sirius's brother, Regulus. She shook her head and walked to the two.

"Hey there Bea." She smiled and then looked at Regulus, her smile fading. "What do you want?" she asked him.

"I'm talking to my girlfriend, not you, thanks." Regulus replied.

"Your what?" Ophelia looked at Beatrice, hoping she'd tell her that he was out of his mind, he was making things up, as Regulus was one to do, but instead, Beatrice just grinned.

"I was going to tell you last night but… I didn't." She didn't have a real reason for it.

"Can I talk to you, Alone?" She shot a glare at Regulus, who just gave her a lazy smile.

"of course. I need to get back to my breakfast anyway. I'm looking forward to our date." He leaned over and kissed her. And then Ophelia was forced to stand there for two minutes while her best friend, and her boyfriend's younger brother made out. Finally she just grabbed Beatrice's arm and dragged her out of the great hall, much to her chagrin.

"Ophelia!" She pulled her arm free. "What the hell?"

"Sorry, I got tired of waiting around for you to come up for air." Ophelia snapped at her.

"Why are you so mad? Seriously? Do you think you're the only one allowed to have a boyfriend?"

"No, it's not that, it's him."

"Oh so you don't think I'm good enough for a pureblood?"

"It has nothing to do with his blood! It's the fact that he's a psycho, and he's working for someone very, very bad."

"He told me about that, how you and Sirius tried to get him in trouble with the headmaster, telling Dumbledore that he's a death eater? Really, you think that he would do that?"

"I didn't go to Dumbledore, Sirius did, and yes, I know he would do that. I heard him Beatrice, he is totally a death eater."

"Why can't you just be happy for me?"

"He's not a nice guy Bea." Ophelia insisted. "Even if we don't include the fact that he's a freaking death eater, he's still not nice. He's the kind of guy that would kick a puppy while taking candy from a child."

"You're just jealous." Beatrice snarled, turning to go back into the castle.

"Of what?" Ophelia asked.

"The fact that I have a boyfriend I can be proud of, while you had to spend so long hiding your relationship."

"I bet you a million galleons he never takes you to meet his parents." Ophelia challenged. "It may not be anything to hide on your end, but I would bet anything he doesn't tell his parents he's dating you." This shut Beatrice up.

"Screw you Ophelia, you and your entire elitist pureblood group." Ophelia watched her walk back in.

"I'm not elitist." She muttered. "I need to find Sirius." She sighed, she knew he couldn't talk Regulus out of dating Beatrice, but he was less likely to freak out over a fear of Beatrice getting hurt, and could, hopefully, give her useless advice.

Or they'd snog until she forgot she was upset. One of the two.

* * *

Alright that's chapter fifteen! Hope you liked it!

I have no question, mostly because I got no answers, but whatever. Off to work on the next chapter

Issy


	16. Pool Party

**Chapter Sixteen**  
**Pool Party**

Beatrice and Ophelia barely spoke for a couple of weeks and when they finally did start to speak to each other again, it was different. Ophelia didn't like Regulus, she didn't trust that he wasn't out to hurt her friend. He was blood obsessed, why would he date a half blood? One who had a muggleborn mother? She didn't understand it and she didn't plan on relaxing until she saw some sort of sign that Regulus wasn't up to something and so far, she hadn't gotten anything to show her that.

Until the day before Easter break.

"Guess what?" Beatrice came running into the dorm, jumping onto Ophelia's bed.

"They've fixed your medication?" Ophelia asked.

"Ha. No, Regulus invited me to come over to his house over the break, the first day of break actually. He wants me to come over."

"His parents are in Spain until Wednesday." Ophelia informed her friend. Beatrice's smile faded a little but not entirely.

"Well the point is, he's invited me over."

"Well I'll see you there."

"What?"

"Sirius invited me over, because his parents will be out. He doesn't want them getting hopeful that he's turning over a new, blood purest leaf." She shrugged and put the last of her stuff in her bag, trading out early spring for late spring and early summer fashions happened during this break. She needed these breaks every year, or she'd lose her mind trying to make all of her stuff fit into her trunk.

"Well… I look forward to seeing you then, maybe you'll see that my relationship with Regulus is just as real as the one you have with Sirius." People were actually really shocked that Sirius and Ophelia were still together. Neither of them had been in a relationship that lasted so long. But they were together and they were happy. They enjoyed spending time together, and they had time apart where he hung out with his friends and she… found something to do. With Beatrice not speaking to her, Ophelia's friend selection was grim.

"Great." Ophelia smiled and grabbed her stuff, dragging it down the stairs. Then her brother took over for her, carrying it out.

This train ride was different from the others, because she spent it with Sirius and the marauders, instead of with her brothers. She sat, turned sideways with her legs in Sirius's lap. She actually got along pretty well with his friends.

"Okay so we are going to have to do something over break, a party or something like that." James said.

"Sirius's parents are out of town." Ophelia spoke up.

"I don't see that ending well." Sirius shook his head.

"Your brother doesn't seem to think so." Ophelia muttered, still angry. She had already explained it to her boyfriend, who agreed, it was weird and he didn't trust Regulus's motives either. They were all silent for a moment before James gave Sirius a little smile, then his face changed to disgust.

"Oh merlin, Wormtail, did you just rip one?" He asked, waving his hand in front of his face. Peter turned red and shot a glance towards Ophelia.

"That's just wrong." Sirius played along.

"N-no, it wasn't me!" He insisted.

"Well it wasn't me." James looked to him.

"Or me." Sirius agreed, He poked Ophelia in the leg and she rolled her eyes.

"Wasn't me." She didn't care for their stupid little jokes, but it was kind of funny too see how flustered. Also, she didn't understand the nicknames they'd suddenly started using all the time. James was Prongs, Sirius was Padfoot, Remus was Moony and Peter was Wormtail. She didn't understand the logic behind it, and when she asked, they just all gave each other secret smiles and said she wouldn't get it.

So she let them play their little games because she knew trying to change these four was like trying to nail gelatin to a tree. She jumped when Sirius poked her in the leg again and she poked him back.

"So James, any progress in your effort to win the heart of Miss Lily Evans?" Ophelia asked. Sirius laughed and James blushed.

"Not exactly."

"The opposite actually." Sirius grinned. "he asked her out again."

"I take it she said no."

"She said that if he were the last man on earth, she'd become a lesbian."

"Thanks Padfoot, it makes me feel so much better to hear it coming out of your mouth." James muttered. He hadn't given up. He was never going to give up. Eventually he was going to get Lily Evans to go out with him and he wasn't going to stop until that happened, no matter how much she resisted. Eventually she'd give in, go out with him and see how great he was, just like Ophelia and Sirius. After all, she supposedly hated him until he got her to go out on one date with him. Well, three dates, but whatever. Of course they had no idea that she'd had a crush on him at the time.

They got to the train station and Sirius helped her get her trunk down. He carried it out of the train for her and then her brothers took it for her. She liked the idea of not having to actually carry it herself. She walked with her brothers, this time no one came to meet them, they were just going to floo to the house themselves. She got the trunk in the little floo network fireplace and called out 'Vander Wende Manor'

After being swept up by the magical flames, she was transported to her family home, into the front hall. She stumbled out, brushing her clothes off. She hated soot. The house elves needed to get to work on cleaning that fireplace, clean fire places didn't leave soot on the floo-er's clothes. She placed her hands on her hips, looking around as her brother's apperated into the room with smirks.

"Someday little sister, you will learn how to apperate." Nik teased. She stuck out her tongue and turned to go up the stairs, she knew one of them would banish her trunk for her.

* * *

The next morning, Ophelia woke up and rolled out of bed, she showered and got dressed, pulling on a bathing suit and a pair of shorts. Because she knew that if she was going to the Black house, they'd end up in the pool. The pool that was just as magic as the rest of the house. She walked to the fireplace and floo'd out of there. One of the best things about having her own fireplace, she didn't need to talk to her parents, ever. She appeared in the Black Fireplace and brushed the soot away.

Only to be tackled by Sirius a second later. She cried out and laughed, pushing him off.

"There is something severely wrong with you." She informed him, getting back up. She moved out of the way as the fireplace roared to life and Beatrice stumbled out. Sirius reached out and caught her arm.

"yeah, you catch her but tackle me." Ophelia made a face. He just smiled at her.

"Of course. I can't put my hands all over her body."

"Or mine, I'll slap the grin right off your face Sirius Black." She threatened, pointing a finger at him. He just laughed and wrapped an arm around her waist.

"So what are we doing?" She asked. Beatrice followed them.

"Where is Regulus?"

"Right here." Regulus walked down the stairs, looking at the three of them. Ophelia rolled her eyes. "Don't look too happy to see me Ophelia, someone might think you actually like me."

"Oh I don't think anyone would make that mistake." Ophelia shook her head. Sirius made a face at his brother and led Ophelia out to the backyard. There was a nice pool out there, of course it was magic, to keep the muggles from seeing it. She dropped her bag and pulled her hair up off her neck.

"I see you came prepared, I didn't say anything about swimming." Sirius smiled.

"Because I know you, even if you didn't have any plans for swimming, you'd end up throwing me in the pool because you're kind of a jerk." She smiled at him and he just grinned back, going to pick her up. "I'll go home and leave you here alone with Regulus and Beatrice." She threatened.

"You're not going anywhere." He shook his head.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." She smiled and kissed him

"do you want anything to drink?" He asked, she looked thoughtful.

"Yeah." She glanced back at Beatrice and Regulus who were whispering to each other. "Juice." She said, not bothering to try and hide the disdain she felt for the two of them being together. Sirius nodded and turned to head for the kitchen but before he could take a step, Kreacher appeared with a glass of pumpkin juice.

"Pumpkin juice for Miss." He bowed his head.

"Thank you Kreacher." She took the glass from the house elf and glanced at her best friend.

"Mistress would have Kreacher's head if she knew a filthy half blood-" Kreacher was cut off by a kick.

"Shut up and go crawl under the water heater." Sirius growled at the elf. Kreacher muttered under his breath and disappeared. Beatrice looked uncomfortable, but Regulus kissed her cheek.

"Ignore him, he's old and crazy. He won't live much longer."

"With any luck." Sirius muttered. "The day his head goes up on the wall, I'm going to hang dirty socks off of it." He decided as he opened the back door. He hated the idea of spending the day with his brother, but he knew Ophelia wouldn't want to leave Beatrice and Regulus alone.

"That's mean." Beatrice frowned, looking over at Ophelia.

"Kreacher is an unpleasant little bugger." Ophelia shrugged. Beatrice, who didn't grow up with house elves, didn't agree with how they treated them.

"Come on, I want to swim." Sirius wrapped an arm around Ophelia's waist, leading her to the pool.

"No you don't, you just want to see me in a bathing suit." Ophelia smirked. She wriggled out of her shorts, leaving her in a light blue one piece with a halter neck.

Beatrice took off her t-shirt and shorts, leaving her in a two piece. She looked over ar Regulus, who was more interested in the empty glass sitting on the table outside, than he was in his girlfriend.

"Regulus?" He looked up and smiled.

"Yes?" He walked over and kissed her before taking off his shirt. He was just as skinny and pale as one would imagine, and he then jumped into the pool. Beatrice smiled and followed him in.

"I really hate him." Ophelia looked at Sirius. "I'm going to have to kill him when he hurts Beatrice."

"I'll help. I'm just looking for excuses to kill him." Sirius took off his own shirt. He was just as skinny and pale at Regulus, but he had a little more muscle tone. "Let's just ignore them and have fun."

They jumped into the pool, away from Beatrice and Regulus, and swam around, enjoying themselves.

It actually went pretty well for a while. They swam, stopped for lunch, and then went back into the pool to swim a little while longer. The problem came at about three in the afternoon, in the form of Orion and Walburga Black, home early from their trip.

"Regulus?" Walburga walked out of the house and the four of them froze.

"Yes mother?" Regulus and Beatrice had gotten out of the pool already. He was reading and she was talking to Ophelia.

"What is going on?" Walburga asked. "And who is this?" she looked accusingly at Beatrice.

"Beatrice mason." Beatrice stood up, about to hold out her hand to shake Walburga's.

"Mason isn't a pure blood name." Beatrice let her hand drop.

"I-um.. I'm a half blood." Beatrice answered.

"Beatrice is here with Sirius.' Regulus said coolly, "I'm just trying to have a good time with my girlfriend." He nodded at Ophelia; the three of them stared at him in shock.

"I should have known." Walburga shot a disgusted look at Sirius.

"You lying little sh-" Sirius jumped out of the pool and grabbed his brother, punching him. Orion ran out of the house, grabbing his oldest son and pulling him off Regulus.

"Ophelia isn't here for Regulus." Sirius snapped. "I've been dating her since Christmas."

"Don't tell stories Sirius." Walburga glared at her rebellious son, going to comfort her youngest, who now had a rapidly developing black eye. Ophelia climbed out of the pool, going to Beatrice, who looked heartbroken.

"I wouldn't touch Regulus with a ten foot pole." Ophelia informed the adults. "Come on." Ophelia grabbed her shorts and lead Beatrice inside, taking her back to the Vander Wende Manor.

As soon as they were out of the Black house, Beatrice let the tears flow.

"Congratulations." She said bitterly. "You were right."

"I didn't want to be." Ophelia insisted. "I wanted him to prove me wrong." She reached out to touch her friend's shoulder, but Beatrice pulled away.

"I thought he liked me, I thought he wasn't like everyone said."

"Everyone?"

"Well, you." Beatrice shrugged. "I really liked him." Her voice cracked and she sank down to sit on the floor. Ophelia sighed and walked over, kneeling down and hugging her friend.

"Maybe it isn't that he doesn't' like you." She reasoned, though she didn't believe it. "It's just his parents; he isn't use to standing up to them." Beatrice looked up

"Really? You think so?" she asked hopefully.

"Maybe." No, she didn't believe it at all and she was kicking herself for giving Beatrice hope for such a thing.

"Yeah, he won't be able to stand up to the right away, and he did look like he felt bad."

"A little," no, he didn't not until Sirius punched him.

"We'll talk, when we go back to school, I'll tell him I understand and I can help him work through his fear of his parents."

"Sure."

"Thanks Ophelia." She stood up and hugged her friend.

"Don't mention it." Ophelia sighed. "Really."

* * *

Well there we go, that's chapter Sixteen, I hope you enjoyed it, action coming in the next couple of chapter.

Also, if you are interested, check out my Vander Wende Tumblr, I have some little tie in things with this story, some up coming ones, and just the family in general.

Issy


	17. Easter Sunday

**Chapter Seventeen**  
**Easter Sunday**

It was Easter Sunday, which normally didn't mean much around the Vander Wende home. The last time they did anything to celebrate was when Ophelia was six, then Sebastian told her the truth about the Easter bunny and she refused to participate ever again. Even when they were kids, their parents didn't really have much to do with the preparations. Adelaide would hire someone to do it all hide eggs, put together the baskets. The only thing they did was sit there and watch the kids go hunting for the little trinkets. Now they didn't even do that.

However they did all get together for the Easter dinner because even though they didn't really have anything to do with religion, all the other families had dinners on this day and they had to keep up with the times. Besides, despite the fact that she hated raising children, now that they were older, she could put up with them. And she liked having them around the table, so she could admire what she claimed as her work.

Most pureblood mothers had at least one disappointing child. She didn't. She had Sebastian, taking over the family business, Stanford with his own family, Nikolas was about to graduate and go into the family business, and he had plenty of women giving him the eye; he would make a great match for any lucky pure blood woman. Then she had her two youngest children, Adrian was in the same boat as Nikolas, it wasn't really useful, being the fourth son, but at least she had another child to brag about. And then there was Ophelia. As much as it bugged Adelaide, Ophelia was beautiful, and Adelaide knew that Ophelia would get dozens of marriage offers. But she had already decided to put her efforts behind Alistair Cassadine. The two of them would be the ideal pair, as soon as she dragged Ophelia away from Sirius Black.

Easter morning came and went, it was noon before the family actually started to wake up. Adelaide took her time getting up and getting dressed, she had to look nice, even though it was just her family. She felt she had to be a role model, to show Ophelia, and even her daughter in law, Juliet, the importance of always looking good, after all, what if unexpected visitors showed up? She got dressed and headed downstairs, she got herself a drink, well she got a house elf to make her a drink, and waited for her family to wake up, or arrive, in the cases of Stanford and Sebastian.

The next one to come down was Adrian, who received breakfast and went back up to his room to eat it. Nikolas did the same. Those two were like peas in a pod, there was less than a year between them and they were generally treated as if they were twins, not actually ten months apart.

Ophelia woke up, wincing when she remembered the events of the night before. After they had hung out for another hour or so, Beatrice went home; all excited about her plans to talk to Regulus, letting him know she forgave him. Ophelia needed to talk her out of it. Regulus wasn't going to get any better, he was always going to do what his parents told him and it would just hurt Beatrice even more because it had nothing to do with her, it was her parents, her heritage that his parents hated and there was no changing that.

Ophelia rolled out of bed and went to shower and get dressed. She knew how her mom was, so she put on a decent outfit before walking out of her bedroom, she did, however, opt against shoes, she preferred to be barefoot in the house, less of a chance of scuffing the fancy expensive floors, besides the plush carpeting felt great under her feet. She walked down the hall silently, going down the stairs, she knew her mother would be in the dining room drinking her favorite mix of alcohols, a Muggle Martini, ready to judge all of them.

Ophelia bi-passed the dining room, going into the second kitchen entrance, the house elves were hard at work on the Easter Dinner.

One of them paused to bring her something to eat and she finally went to the dining room to eat. Luckily for her, Stanford, Juliet and Nigel arrived at that time.

"Hi Ophelia." Stanford nodded at his sister. "Has Sebastian arrived yet?" he asked. Adelaide shook her head in the negative. "Good, I wanted to talk to you about him. He has been acting… very strange lately. I'm starting to worry about him and the effect this will have on the company." Of course, no one in the family was ever just worried about someone else, there always had to be a second reason behind it, usually it was the company or the family's reputation.

"How so?" Silas walked into the dining room, looking down at his second son.

"He's acting very odd, secretive and a little erratic, he's rarely where he says he's going to be. There are people going in and out of his home at all times of the night." Ophelia choked on her milk, causing the rest of them to stop and look at her. Even little Nigel seemed to be staring at her.

"Do you know anything about this?" Stanford asked.

"Um… No." Ophelia shook her head. He narrowed his eyes, not believing her, she took another long drink of milk and by the time she put her glass back down, they all heard the pop of apperation, all of them jumping when Sebastian appeared in the dining room.

"Sebastian, what the hell is wrong with you? You know you're supposed to apperated into the front hall." Silas growled at his son, trying to speak over the now crying baby. Juliet got up and walked out of the room to try and calm her son down.

"It's not like it's a big deal, it's a stupid rule anyway, no one honestly makes people apperate in the front rom." Sebastian walked over and sat down in one of the chairs around the dining room table.

"It's common courtesy." Ophelia rolled her eyes. He shot a glare at her.

"I wasn't asking you. You can't even apperate yet."

"A year and a half away." She shrugged and went back to eating. She finished her breakfast and the bowl disappeared.

"Sebastian, are you feeling alright?" Silas asked his son. He looked nervous, twitchy.

"Yeah I'm fine, just tired, I was up last night working on things for the company." The Vander Wendes owned a sports equipment company, they made brooms and quidditch balls and other wizarding sports stuff and they also made some muggle sports equipment. But most of their business came from the Wizarding side.

"Things like what?" Stanford asked.

"I think we should shut down the Muggle side of the company. It doesn't make us as much money and it's betraying our fellow wizards." Ophelia's heart stopped.

"Are you out of your mind?" Silas asked. "I would never even consider cutting ties with the muggle branch of the company. It doesn't make as much as the wizard branch, but it still makes millions."

"It's betraying,"

"How? We're not any less effiecent in making wizarding equipment, if anything we're more so because we've taken bits from muggle lines and wizard lines." Silas shook his head. "It's a ridiculous idea, we're not getting rid of anything." Sebastian glared at his father, getting up, knocking the chair over. He stormed out of the room, they could hear him in the sitting room, pouring himself a fire whiskey.

"Okay, maybe he has lost his mind." Adelaide nodded. Juliet came back in with the baby, followed by Nik and Adrian, who had finally dragged themselves out of bed.

"What's wrong with Sebastian? He just called us mudblood sympathizers and downed a full glass of fire whiskey." Adrian quirked an eyebrow.

"This isn't going to do." Silas sighed, sitting down. "We'll worry about it later. Today is a holiday."

"Exactly, we have a full day of ignoring each other until dinner." Ophelia stood up. They all looked at her and smiled.

"Don't think we've forgotten about earlier." Stanford said. "You know something, and I for one want to know what it is, before it's too late to help Sebastian."

"At the very least, save the company." Silas nodded,

"Or the fire whiskey supply." Adrian finished.

That evening they all got back together in the dining room for dinner. Even Sebastian showed up, looking tired, but calmer than he had before, not by much though. That was the odd thing, he had always been so calm and relaxed, now he was antsy and jumped at every sound. They all watched him as if waiting for him to jump up and rip all his hair out.

"Sebastian? Are you alright?" Adelaide asked her oldest son. He just looked up at her, as if he had forgotten where he was.

"Yeah I'm fine." He nodded. "How much longer is it going to be before the food comes out?" He asked, in a bad mood. "I made plans tonight." He looked at the door to the kitchen. As if on cue, the first course appeared, soup. Sebastian relaxed a little bit and started to eat.

"So what do you have planned?" Stanford asked his older brother. Sebastian just gave him a dirty look. It was his theory that Stanford was horribly jealous of him. As the oldest son, he had first rights to the family business, and he would, when Silas retired, take it over, and when Silas died, Sebastian would get the majority of the share holdings. He was looking forward to that day. The day he took over, he was going to change everything about the company, starting with that bloody muggle branch. It made them look like Blood Traitors.

"Just a get together with some friends." He looked over at his sister, who refused to look up. He knew she'd seen him at his death eater meeting. And he had chased her down and threatened her if she ever told anyone, but he knew she wouldn't. She had that stupid sense of loyalty to the family and the family name. And right now, being a death eater wasn't considered a good thing, but it would soon. When Voldemort reigned, the death eaters would be in charge. They would run the wizarding world and be given the best of everything.

Unfortunately for his borderline blood traitor family, he didn't have the same sense of loyalty as his sister. He leaned back, checking the time as the second course appeared. He didn't plan on staying through dessert, he needed to get out of there, he needed to get to the meeting. The Dark Lord had promised them action tonight and he wasn't going to miss that.

Ophelia looked over at her brother, she had a very good idea of where he was going after this, and that scared the hell out of her. She had no idea what they were planning of course, but just the idea that they were going out there to do bad things made her incredibly nervous because she couldn't do a think about it.

She hated that sense of helplessness. More than anything.

Before dessert was served, Sebastian said his goodbyes and apperated away.

"That was Bizarre." Adelaide shook her head, taking a sip of her drink. "Is he on drugs?"

"I guess that's possible." Stanford turned to look at Ophelia, who was poking at her dinner. "Ophelia?" She looked up.

"Yeah?" She asked.

"Do you have anything to say?" he asked. She shook her head.

"No, not really. I think I'm going to skip dessert, I'm full."

"Is she on drugs?" Adelaide asked.

"Definitely." Adrian nodded. "I get her dessert." He added. The food appeared and Ophelia took the opportunity to go up to her room. She was going to see about getting a hold of Sirius, but decided against it, she needed to get her new set of clothing packed for school. She turned and headed into her closet.

And she was still doing so a couple hours later when she got a call from downstairs, asking her to come down. She hurried down, confused, but she was pretty sure it was her dad and older brother, ready to try and pry the information out of her.

She was very wrong, she realized that as soon as she saw the auror in the front hall. Her heart dropped,

"W-what is this?" She asked. She looked at her parents, who both looked sad, Juliet had tears in her eyes and Stanford was stony faced. "What's going on? Is it Sebastian?" She asked.

"No Sweetie." Juliet shook her head.

"Miss Vander Wende?"

"Yes?" Ophelia looked at the Auror.

"We're here about Beatrice Mason."

"What about her?" She asked. The man took a deep breath.

"She and her mother were found this evening, murdered, under the symbol of Voldemort."

* * *

So um... no lie, I'm getting emotional. So I'm going to get it all out and get started on the next chapter while I wait for food.

Issy


	18. Gone Too Soon

**Chapter Eighteen  
Gone Too Soon**

They had been found by Beatrice's dad. Robert Mason had come home after running out to pick up more butter to find his wife dead in the kitchen, slumped over the counter, the rag she was using to clean up, clutched in her hand. He found Beatrice on the stairs, as if she'd tried to run away. It wasn't until after he found them that the dark mark filled the sky to announce the death of the two women.

Ophelia's hands shook as she tried to button up her dress. She cursed as she messed it up for the third time. She walked over to her bed and sank down on it, tears rolling down her cheeks. She had been crying almost non-stop for the past three days, since she found out her best friend had been murdered, all because her mother was a muggleborn. Her mother had been the target, Beatrice had just happened to be there.

But there was something else that was bothering her, something she was refusing to think about. She stood up and finally got her dress buttoned up and she headed for the door. She didn't want to do this, she didn't want to go to the funeral of her fifteen year old best friend. It wasn't right. There was something so, so wrong about going to the funeral of someone who hadn't really lived yet.

She got to the fireplace in the entrance hallway and she got into the large fireplace, flooing away.

She got to the funeral home. Everyone was in shock. It was hard to think about, painful to think about. Beatrice was dead, Beatrice and her mum were dead, they had been killed. She pressed her hand over her mouth and walked away from the crowd. She felt Sirius's arms around her and she turned to cry into his chest. She knew it was him, he smelled like him. She glanced up and sure enough, it was him. He just held her and let her sob.

"It's not fair." She cried. She should have invited Beatrice over for dinner, she should have told someone about her brother then maybe…

"It's not." He agreed, kissing her head. He rubbed her arm, waiting for her to run out of tears, but she didn't think she'd ever run out. She'd float away on a sea of tears. She finally pulled back, wiping her eyes.

"I can't imagine life without her." She and Beatrice may not have been the typical best friends. They often fought, acted like they were better than the other, but Ophelia had never treated Beatrice like crap for not being rich and Beatrice had always told Ophelia the truth, even if it wasn't what she wanted to hear. Ever since they'd met on the train

* * *

_"Nigel!" Eleven year old Ophelia followed her older brother through the train. "Wait up."_

_"I told you not to follow me munchkin." Nigel snapped at his sister. She was about seven years younger than him and a huge pain. "Find a car, sit and follow the man yelling for first years." He then pushed into a crowd, leaving the younger girl behind. She sighed and turned, going to find a car. She finally found a mostly empty one, the only other person was a blonde girl, about her age, with two braids._

_She walked in and sat down without saying a word to the girl. She had never had to try and make a friend before, but the idea of sitting with all her so called friends made her want to jump off the train._

_"Hi." The girl piped up after a moment. "I'm Beatrice." Ophelia had just kind of stared at her a moment. She wasn't the type of person Ophelia usually talked to. She wore muggle clothing, jeans with dirt on the knees and a peasant blouse with different shades of red, orange and yellow it's its blinding paisley prin._

_"I'm Ophelia." She replied, She reached into her new bag, a messenger bag her parents bought her for her first year of school and pulled out a magazine._

_"Oh I love that one." Beatrice said,_

_"Great." Ophelia answered, opening it up and looking at the first page._

_"You're pretty rude, you know that?" Beatrice spoke. Ophelia frowned and looked up at her._

_"I am not."_

_"You really are, You came into my car, and now you're just going to ignore me?"_

_Somehow, that less than perfect first meeting, they became friends. They had been very close, until their third year when they started to drift apart, mostly because of the balls that Ophelia and the other girls attending that Beatrice was never invited to. She felt like Ophelia was cheating her, because she didn't even try to get her invited. Now Ophelia felt bad that she hadn't demanded her parents at least, invite her only real friend._

* * *

They all filed into the church, her family had been fairly religious, they hadn't freaked out over it, seeing as they believed in magic, didn't really have any other choice, but they had gone to church every Sunday. They found a place towards the front and sat down. In the front row sat Robert Mason, his face showing every ounce of emotion. He looked devastated, like he wanted nothing more than to jump into the casket with his wife or his daughter. It was closed casket, rumor was that when they had died, Beatrice and her mother both had looks of terror on their faces, and no one wanted to see that at the funeral.

Sirius held Ophelia hand, scooting back in the pew as James, Peter and Remus arrived. They hadn't known Beatrice that well, but they were there for Sirius and Ophelia. James took Ophelia's other hand after sitting down. She just let the tears make their way down her cheek until they started dripping down onto her lap. Sirius reached out and wiped them away.

"They're going to want people to get up and tell stories." Remus said softly.

"I can't." Ophelia said in a small voice, shaking her head. She could feel her chest about to collapse in with the pressure of grief building up and it was just going to get worse as time went on. Because after this, she'd go home and, even though Beatrice wouldn't' have been there, Ophelia knew she was going to feel the loneliness. Then of course they were going to go back to school and a few words would be said at the first dinner for her. Then people would be talking. And the worst part would be going up to the dorm and knowing she didn't have Beatrice there to talk to.

She looked up when she heard whispers at the door. Her eyes widened when she saw Regulus walk in. His hands were in his pockets and he didn't look all that bothered by the fact that his girlfriend was dead.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Ophelia snarled quietly. Sirius looked just as shocked and angry as she did.

"Don't." James muttered to both of them. "Not here." He Held tighter to Ophelia's hand until she didn't look like she was going to jump up and murder Regulus Black in the middle of a church.

"She was going to forgive him." Ophelia informed Sirius. "She was so sure he'd just done it because he was afraid of your parents, she was going to forgive him for saying she was with you, because she liked him that much. I bet he knew the whole time that it was going to happen." She felt the tears building up again.

"He's sick." Sirius agreed. They all quieted down as the music started up, it was a sad hymn. It was in latin, so none of them really understood what was being said, but it was pretty and it hit Ophelia right in the chest. She pressed her hand to her mouth to try and avoid sobbing uncontrollably. Sirius wrapped his arms around her to let her cry into his shoulder again. Her thin shoulders shook as she cried.

A few people got up to tell stories, all of them choking up in the middle of their stories. After a woman, Beatrice's aunt, sat down, Regulus got up and walked to the podium.

"I hadn't known Beatrice that long, but the time we had together was special." He said, a laziness about his tone. Ophelia's head jerked up and she glared at him. If looks could kill, Regulus would have been dead many times over. He glanced at the casket and she was surprised to see a moment of actual grief. "What happened to her was wrong, a life, gone too soon. But I know Beatrice wouldn't have wanted everyone to mourn her forever. She'd have wanted us to move on, live happy lives, remembering her in the best way possible." He nodded at her father and went to sit down. Despite that moment of grief, Ophelia still wanted to strangle him.

She took a deep breath and got up, Sirius looked at her in surprise as she made her way to the podium. Her hands shook violently as she gripped the handkerchief Remus had given to her.

"I did know Beatrice for a while." She shot a glare at Regulus, who just gave her half a smile. "I met Beatrice on the train to school," She knew Beatrice's mother's family and friends were there and she didn't know how many of them knew about the magical world. "And I knew right away that she was the most honest person I ever met, even when you didn't want her to be." That got a small chuckle out of them. "I always thought she was the strongest person I ever met, but still so kind. Willing to give people a second chance when they definitely didn't deserve it." She shot another glare at Regulus, and his half smile dropped. She felt a little better about that. She took a deep shakey breath. She didn't really know where to go from there. She just didn't want Regulus to have the last word at the funeral of the girl e didn't deserve.

"Beatrice was the only friend I really had, and she was always the first one to tell me so, and I am so lucky to have gotten to know her as well as I did." Ophelia felt her throat constrict and she gave a nod before hurrying away from the podium. She went to sit back down as Robert walked up to the front. His speech about his wife and daughter was the most heartbreaking thing Ophelia had ever heard in her life, it took a while because he broke down crying twice.

Finally it was time to bury them. Her mother had always wanted to muggle burial, in the same cemetery as her parents, and Robert was going to do the same for Beatrice. They all walked out, following the path to Beatrice's grave. The two caskets were slowly lowered into the grave.

"I need a drink." Sirius muttered, his arms wrapped around Ophelia's waist as she shivered against him. She nodded in agreement, a drink sounded great, better yet, three or four. She'd never had to deal with grief. The only person in her life that had ever died was her grandfather and she barely knew him, she hadn't been that upset when he died. She wiped her eyes.

When the caskets were in, everyone started to leave, filing by Robert to give him their condolences. Ophelia skipped that part, she'd never met Beatrice's parents and she didn't think she could handle talking to him. There was going to be a small get together after wards.

"I'm not going." Ophelia's voice cracked. "I just want to go home." Sirius nodded and kissed her head.

"Alright, I'll talk to you tonight." He said, he led her to the home where they'd both floo'd to and she floo'd home. She went up to her room, her family was at a party, they asked her to give her condolences to Robert, but they didn't really care and she knew that. They'd never really met Beatrice, why would they mourn her?

She stayed up in her room crying until she heard the sounds of her family coming home. She got up and walked down to them. They had a small conversation, mostly them talking about the party. They didn't ask her about the funeral and she was grateful, she didn't want to talk about it. At least until Sebastian spoke up, as the rest of the family parted ways

"So, Ophelia, how did that party of yours go?" he asked. She turned to glare at him.

"It was a funeral."

"Oh right." He shrugged and turned, heading for the sitting room, where the booze was kept. She decided she had to know if her brother had anything to do with it, and followed him in.

* * *

I kind of hate myself for this but... anyway RIP Beatrice.

-Issy


	19. The Truth Hurts

**Chapter Nineteen  
The Truth Hurts**

Ophelia opened the door of the study to find Sebastian pouring himself a drink.

"Want one?" he asked her.

"I'm fifteen."

"Want one?" He repeated.

"Yes." She answered, walking over. She watched intently as he poured another drink. She took it carefully, she didn't' want to touch him. He disgusted her.

"Have you kept your mouth shut?"

"Have you been dragged off to Azkaban?" She replied, he smirked, looking at his younger sister with amusement.

"You know, I don't think the others give you enough credit. You're not a fragile little butterfly ready to break at any moment." He noted. "You have the potential to be just as ruthless as the rest of us."

"Don't compare me to you, ever." She downed her fire whiskey and put the glass down, pausing to appreciate the burn of the alcohol down her throat. It was an expensive alcohol, and it went down smoothly, with just the right amount of burn.

"Got it." He smiled, his eyes never leaving her. She stared intently at her glass. She needed to stop thinking and demand to know the truth. She was about to ask, but he jumped in.

"I hate these stupid social events." He went to sit down. "They're so fake, such a waste of time and money. We should have been there for you at the funeral." The very idea of him being there made her stomach turn.

"I don't think I would have wanted you there." She said, looking up at him.

"Why not?" He asked, the amused smile returning to his face.

"I wouldn't think you'd want to go anyway. She was a half blood and her mum was a muggleborn." This cause him to sneer.

"You're right."

"And you're wrong." Ophelia looked up at him. He'd stood up when she said he was wrong, hoping to intimidate her with his height. Once upon a time it would have worked. Ophelia was fairly small and Sebastian had about six inches and a hundred pounds on her. But now when she looked at him, all she saw was a pathetic excuse for a man. His eyes were bloodshot, his face scruffy, showing he hadn't shaved that morning. Even the suit he was wearing looked silly on him. Like a little boy pretending to be a man.

"And what am I wrong about Ophelia?" He asked his voice dangerously calm.

"There is nothing wrong with muggleborns or Half-bloods."

"They're below us. We have a stronger bloodline and thus are superior." Sebastian insisted. "You're just too young to understand." He looked at her like she was treading on dangerous territory, and she really was.

"You just said a minute ago that people underestimate me, now you're doing it yourself. I am smarter than you think I am Sebastian, and I completely understand. You know that the purebloods are a dying breed. Muggleborns and half-bloods out populate us and are often stronger than we are. And that scares the hell out of you."

"You don't know anything Ophelia." Sebastian growled.

"I know your great leader is a half blood." He lashed out, smacking her, hard. Tears of pain sprang to her eyes and she reached up to touch her warm cheek tenderly. It was hot to the touch. She had never been smacked before. It wasn't a fun experience, not only was there the initial pain of the contact, it continued to sting after that. Then there was the humiliation of having just been smacked, even if no one else was in the room.

"Learn your place, Little Sister, so your husband doesn't have to beat you into it." He snarled.

"Did you do it?" She asked. He got another glass of fire whiskey and sat back down. "Did you kill Beatrice and her mum?" She had to know, she wasn't going to hold back anymore. She wanted him to admit it to her. To confirm what she already knew.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He shrugged, he held the glass to his lips, taking a sip of the amber liquid and then stretched out on the small leather couch.

"Tell me the truth Sebastian! Did you have anything to do with it?"

"You don't want to know the answer to that, Baby sister." Sebastian smirked. "It might just break your heart." Ophelia stared at him a moment before turning and running out of the room. She found Stanford and her father in the upstairs study.

"Sebastian is a death eater. He is working with Voldemort. I walked in on a meeting he was holding at his home with other death eaters." She then turned and went to her room. She took a look at herself in the mirror, not happy with what she saw. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying, her cheek was just as red as her eyes, and a little swollen from the slap. She pressed her back to the door, sinking down to the floor and sobbing. She needed out of there. She needed to be far away from her brother because she was going to go down there and murder him if she didn't leave. She crawled to her fireplace, flooing to the Black house.

* * *

She walked straight up to Sirius's room, totally ignoring his parents and Regulus, actually she did pause to shoot him a dirty look before hurrying up the stairs. She found the right door and knocked.

"Go Away." Came the reply. She knocked again and this time the response was an angry groan, but the squeaking of bedsprings as he got up. The door opened and he froze. "Ophelia?" He obviously hadn't been expecting her, not that she'd done anything to make him expect her.

"I needed to see you." She bit her lip softly. "Is that okay?" She asked. She didn't know what she'd do if he said no. she wasn't going to go home, and it wasn't' like she had a lot of choices for where to go.

"Yeah, of course, what happened to your cheek?" He moved so she could walk in. she glanced around, it was filed with Gryffindor paraphernalia and pictures of half-naked muggle women, as well as pictures of him with his friends and with her. She turned her attention to her boyfriend and started telling him the story. Of course when she got to the part where Sebastian hit her, she expected the reaction she got.

"I'm going to kill him." He jumped up and headed for the door. She grabbed her arm and stopped him.

"Sirius, as sure as I am about your ability to beat my twenty five year old brother, despite the fact that you're fifteen and he has ten more years of experience than you, don't." She rolled her eyes and sat on the bed, pulling him to sit down next to her. She wiped her eyes for the millionth time. "He practically bragged about helping to kill Beatrice. And her mum." Sirius looked at her in shock.

"Oh Merlin." He sighed, reaching out to hug her. She had finally run out of tears.

"You were right." She said softly after a few minutes of silence. "I should have told someone sooner, then Sebastian would have been locked away and Beatrice-"

"You have been attacked by someone else." You couldn't have prevented this, Ophelia, They wanted someone to kill and the Masons fit the bill." He kissed her head. "It wasn't your fault." He insisted.

"But I could have-"

"No you couldn't. You can play this game all day, but this wasn't about you. It had nothing to do with anything you did, the choices you made. This was the action of a bigoted mad man and his tiny brained follower." Sirius placed his hand under her chin, making her look up at him. "You know what Beatrice would say right now."

"That I'm stupid and the world still doesn't revolve around me." Ophelia answered Beatrice was forever telling her she wasn't' the center of the universe.

"She would want you to stop crying and being so down. She would want you to move on and enjoy your life."

"You and Beatrice are really bossy." She sighed. He smiled and kissed her.

"Yeah well it's for your own good."

"Shut up." She tried to look serious, but a smile made its way up to her mouth.

"See, that's why I like, when you're smiling and snapping at me." He leaned over and kissed her again. She kissed back, happy to get her mind off of life, thinking about nothing but the feel of his lips against hers.

They just sort of… stayed there together all night, falling asleep in each other's arms. The next morning Ophelia woke up before Sirius and she slipped out of bed. She snuck out and went into the restroom. She was still a mess, her eyes and cheek were looking better, but her lips were a little swollen now, from snogging. She tried to tame her hair a little bit and then headed back into his room. He was still passed out so she decided to poke around. She looked at the books he had. He didn't have a lot, but the ones he had were obviously loved, they were beat up with creases in the spines, as if he'd read them over and over again. She looked at some of the pictures. There was one of him with his uncle when he was a kid, there were a few of him with James and the other two Marauders. She smiled at the picture of the two of them together.

It had been taken over the winter, soon after Christmas, they had gone outside and ended up caught in a snowball fight with some other kids in their year. After, they had gone inside with his friends and they got a picture of Sirius sitting with his arms around Ophelia, who was sitting in his lap. It was a cute picture.

She moved on, looking at the things on his cluttered desk. She frowned and picked up a mask. It was a devil mask. She turned to look at him and then back at the mask. No. There was no way he could have been the mystery man. She heard him stir and she turned around, holding up the mask. He looked at her tiredly, his eyes travelling down to the mask in her hand.

"Oh." He sat up a little more.

"You were my Lucifer?"

"Your Lucifer?" He asked. "I wasn't aware that you had laid claim to me."

"Why didn't you tell me?" she put the mask down and walked over to sit on the bed.

"I didn't want to ruin it. You seemed so happy with the mystery man; I didn't want to ruin it by telling you it was me." He shrugged. She smiled softly and leaned over to kiss him.

"Well now I'm glad it was you." She said. He smiled and kissed back.

"I'm a little hurt that you never told me you were in love with this Lucifer guy."

"I never said anything about love." She shook her head.

"Yeah right." He smiled. "I overheard you talking about me many times without even realizing it."

"You're a pig." She stuck her tongue out.

"Actually, I'm a dog." He grinned and kissed her, she reached out, turning down the picture of Him and his uncle, she didn't want that picture watching them.

"Sirius?" She pulled back a little and looked at him.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"I love you." He stared at her a moment.

"I love you too."

* * *

Almost halfway there! And Part one is over. I've decided to just put all... I think four parts into the same story. Part one is really long, but the next three are shorter, six or seven chapters each.

Reviews and favorites are awesome.

Issy


	20. This Year

**Part Two: The Calm**

**Chapter Twenty  
This Year**

It had been almost two years since the death of her best friend and while Ophelia had definitely not forgotten Beatrice, or the part her family had in her death, she had finished mourning. It was their seventh year and they were prepared to have a good one. Of course, it wouldn't be without drama, as Ophelia and Sirius had been dating on and off since fifth year. It was always a morning game people played, guessing if the two were together or fighting over something new and probably just as ridiculous as the last fight they'd had.

Ophelia waited at the train station, her older brothers were all out of school and her mother didn't feel obligated to go to Kings Cross just to see her daughter off to school. And honestly Ophelia wasn't terribly upset about that. She was just waiting for Sirius and the other boys to come along to carry her trunks onto the train. This year she was able to shrink the clothes down herself, which was good, seeing as Nik and Adrian had both moved out of the house and were no longer at her beck and call to do things like that.

She tucked her long blonde hair behind her ear while waiting for the tell-tale signs that the marauders were on their way, the laughing, whooping and usually some angry grumbling from the people they passed. They had grown up quite a bit, but James and Sirius were always going to be a little bit obnoxious. It was inevitable. Remus still had a chronic inability to say no to them and Peter still followed them around with stars in his eyes. The four of them had changed a lot but at the base of it, they were the same boys they had been years ago.

She heard it after about ten minutes of waiting. James shot past her, followed by Sirius, who managed to stop a little sooner, next to Ophelia with a grin. He tried to catch his breath, looking around for his best friend.

"You're a cheater, Potter." He called out. Since moving out of his parent's house, Sirius had been a lot happier honestly. He had moved out the summer after Beatrice died, after he had nearly tricked Snape to his death, and hadn't looked back. Then last year his favorite uncle died, leaving Sirius with a large sum of money, so Sirius had bought himself a little flat and that damned motorcycle. Ophelia hated it, it was a piece of junk, but Sirius insisted her could fix it, make it better. He loved tinkering with that thing.

"You're late Black." Ophelia said. They had agreed on a time to meet, but she had known they'd be late, they were always late. It was a Marauder quality.

"And a sore loser." James sauntered over, draping his arm over Ophelia's shoulders. Finally Remus and Peter made their way over to the two of them. "I told you I was faster that Sirius." He said to Remus. "And to think, Peter was the only one who believed in me." Peter brightened.

"Peter's an idiot." Sirius said, and Peter's grin dropped. "And you only won because you cheated." He picked up two of Ophelia's bags, he knew the drill.

"I did not." James picked up the other two for her. He had actually taken pretty well to Ophelia being around all the time. But it helped that she didn't insist on being with Sirius every moment of every day and still let them have all the guy time they wanted to have, as opposed to other girls who tried to insert themselves into everything the guys did. He hated that.

"Thanks boys." She said, though she knew neither of them would hear it, they were not about to give up their argument about James and his alleged cheating.

"You took off before Moony said go, and you knocked over a pile of luggage." Sirius accused.

"He said go, and that wasn't me, they just… fell." James disagreed. She rolled her eyes, looking at Remus and Peter before turning on her heel and walking onto the train. They found a car fairly easily, their bags went up into the rack and then they all fell into the seats. James and Sirius on one side, with Ophelia draped over them, Remus and Peter on the other side, with Remus's pile of books between them.

"You're seriously studying already?"

"NEWTs are this year. I'm not going to miss a single one due to lack of studying." Remus informed them. "In fact, you all should be studying too." He had been infuriated by Sirius and James's OWLs, mostly because they'd gotten really great scores without really trying. Peter had gotten low scores, and Ophelia had gotten moderate. Remus, of course, had gotten the most. Because he actually studied.

"I'm not worried about it. Honestly, I don't think NEWTs count for much. After all, why would anyone in the auror office care if I can take a test? As long as I can throw a hex and take down those slime balls, I should be fine." James nodded and leaned back, pushing Ophelia's feet off his lap. "and I'm not a foot rest." He added to the girl. She stuck her tongue out and bent her knees so they rested on the seat between Sirius and James.

"Someone is painfully touchy." Ophelia noted.

"He hasn't seen Lily yet, he needs his fix." Sirius said.

"Shut up Padfoot." James punched his friend's arm, hard. Sirius laughed and leaned over to kiss Ophelia.

"See, I was never that desperate."

"I'm pretty sure I should feel insulted by that fact." Ophelia quirked an eyebrow at him and he just smiled sweetly.

"You shouldn't, Because in the end, you got me, right?"

"You say that like I should be grateful." Sirius just made a face at her.

"Speak of the devil." He looked at the door as Lily appeared.

"Have any of you seen Alice? She lost her cat and I just found it." She held up the little tabby cat.

"Alice? Nope, but I bet you'd find her with Frank." Remus answered.

"I can help you." James offered, standing up. "We'll find her faster that way." He smiled. She looked at him suspiciously but nodded.

"Alright." She said, then they headed off to try and find the owner of the cat.

"Wow, she almost didn't look like she hated him." Sirius said. Ophelia got up and moved to take James's seat. The four boys had themselves arranged a certain way and when she'd joined their group, kind of, she had to try and fit herself in there without pushing anyone else out of their spot.

"I told you all, once he starts acting his age she might change her tune about hating his guts." She shrugged. "But no, James never wanted to listen to my advice." She rolled her eyes and reached into her bag, pulling out a book.

"I must be seeing things, Phe, is that a really thick magazine? Because I know it can't be a book, my girlfriend hasn't read a book by choice since we got too old for picture books."

"You're funny." Ophelia rolled her eyes. "And yes, it is a book. My dad picked it up for me when he was in London last week. He said the sales girl thought I would like it."

"The sales girl doesn't know you." Remus glanced up.

"She knows me about as well as my dad does." Ophelia reasoned. Remus thought about that a moment and then looked back down at his own book, pulling a bar of chocolate from his own bag.

"Anyone want some?"

About twenty minutes later James came back to the car looking very happy. He had a blissful grin on his face and didn't even complain about Ophelia sitting in his spot like he usually did.

"How 'bout it mate, did you get lucky on the train?" Sirius asked. Ophelia hit him with her book.

"You're disgusting." She informed him. He just grinned wickedly at her. "Seriously though, why do you look so happy?" She asked James suspiciously.

"Because I just spent twenty minutes with Lily Evans and by the end of it, she hadn't told me she hated me and she didn't look disgusted with anything I said." He said proudly. They all looked at him in shock. It was rare the Lily didn't get angry with James if she had to talk to him for more than five minutes. Even six minutes was often too much for her to handle.

"Wow, congratulations mate." Sirius said.

"This is it boys… and Ophelia, I can feel it, this is the year that Lily Evans will fall in love with me. I am going to make it happen, no matter what I have to do." He had grown closer to her over their sixth year, it helped that she'd stopped talking to Severus after he'd called her a mudblood in front of a number of their classmates. Honestly he and Sirius didn't go after Snape much anymore, mostly because they knew he knew Remus's secret after Sirius's stupid trick. James had managed to after the boy from death or becoming a werewolf himself ad as a result, Snape felt like he owed James something, but James had no plans to collect, mostly because it was his best friend's fault that it almost happened anyway.

The train ride was fairly uneventful, until Remus put away his books and pulled out a newspaper, there were three more death eater related deaths over the past week. It was getting out of hand.

"This is ridiculous. They know who's doing it, why don't they just go get him?" James asked.

"They'd have to find him first. They would have to prove who exactly was doing it too." Ophelia knew thanks to her brother, how it worked. Sebastian had been knocked down as next in line for the family company, the position now given to Stanford, because of Sebastian's alliances, but that didn't stop him from following 'The Dark Lord' religiously. He really only spoke to Ophelia anymore, and that was because he knew she didn't want to talk to him. He wrote her letters all the time, updating her on what was going on with him and his friends and in exchange, she told him all the great things Stanford was doing for the company both of them telling the other about things they didn't want to hear.

It was a fantastic family relationship

"So, how are Adrian and Nik doing with their new jobs?" James asked.

"Not great. Well Nik is, but Adrian is still trying to get into the swing of things, like wearing a suit every day." Her brother hated the 'formal' wear he had to wear to work every day. He would much rather wear jeans and a t-shirt. But there were rules and one of them was that everyone had to dress nicely and that went double for the family members.

"Well it's better than having to wear a school uniform."

"That's what I told him, Speaking of, I am going to get changed." Ophelia got up and grabbed her school clothes, walking back to get changed out of her comfortable muggle clothes and into the Hogwarts school uniform. When she got back, the four boys were already changed, that wasn't a shock. The four of them had very little modesty around each other. It drove her crazy. Even with her dorm mates they usually wet to extremes to keep themselves covered. But that could have been because it was a room full of gossip-y judgmental girls who were just dying to have something to criticize at all times.

Finally they got to the school and it was time for them to go in to start their final year of schooling. All of them hoping it was going to be the best year yet.

* * *

Alright, part two, here we go. I'm currently writing out chapter Twenty one.

Also, wish me good luck, I have two job interviews, one today and one tomorrow!

Issy


	21. No More Lies

**Chapter Twenty One  
No More Lies**

So far James's plan just wasn't quite going the way he wanted it to. It was almost time for the first trip to Hogsmeade and he still hadn't made any headway into his goal of dating Lily Evans. He had tried asking her out, but each time he would go to his default mode of 'cocky prick'. Obviously that wasn't going to work. He was sitting with Ophelia and Sirius in the library, pouting about his latest failed attempt.

"I don't even know what went wrong, we were talking-"

"About you?"

"Of course." James answered his best friend's girlfriend.

"There is your problem. Stop talking about yourself, ask about her."

"I tried. But then she asked about me and then I started talking and I didn't want to stop." James sighed and leaned back in his seat. "I'm not giving up, I am going to get her to go out with me. I'm sure all I need is one date and she will fall head over heels in love with me."

"You're a strange little man, you know that?" Ophelia stood up and smoothed the back of her skirt down before stepping away from Sirius, who was trying to mess it up. She smacked his hand away. "I'm going to head off. I have homework that I actually want to get done." She leaned down to kiss Sirius and then walked out of the library. She had intended to go down to her dorm and study but then she saw the long red hair of Lily Evans. She sighed and followed after her.

"Lily!" She hurried to follow the girl.

"No." Lily said automatically.

"Excuse me?" Ophelia asked.

"Tell James no, even sending someone to do the dirty work for him, I'm not going out with him."

"Actually I was just going to ask you if you had any idea how to start that paper from History of Magic." Ophelia quirked an eyebrow. Lily blushed lightly.

"Oh… sorry I just… I'm use to Potter's tricks."

"No tricks, I would just like to pass my classes." Ophelia said. Lily nodded ant they found a place to sit down. Before Ophelia could open her mouth, Lily jumped in.

"So James really didn't send you?"

"Really." Ophelia nodded.

"Because I just turned him down and usually after that happens he comes up with some new stupid plan to try and get me to agree to go on a date with him."

"Well I can't promise he's not coming up with a new plan, but I have nothing to do with it. I mean, I can see why you wouldn't want to date him." Ophelia looked up at her. Lily frowned.

"He's your boyfriend's best friend."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I think he's datable. He's cocky and kind of a jerk. He doesn't know how to talk about anyone but himself-"

"He can be really sweet and thoughtful. When I got sick last year he brought me soup right up to the common room. If I asked for it he would bring me the moon."

"Well besides that, he's not nearly as cute as some of the other boys in our year. I'd say he's passible."

"He's hot. The way his hair sticks up after he's run his hands through it for the millionth time. His bright blue eyes and the way they light up when he's excited…" Lily bit her lip softly. Ophelia quirked an eyebrow.

"Huh… well Lily, if I didn't know any better, I would say that you didn't hate him quite as much as you let on." She crossed her legs and looked at the red head. Lily snapped out of her fantasy and looked at Ophelia in surprise.

"I- what?" She asked. Ophelia just smiled.

"You know, Hogsmeade is a really great place for a date this time of year. Last year Sirius took me to Puddifoot's. It's pretentious and the biscuits are dry, but their pumpkin spice tea is worth killing for, and if you get it to go, it's even better." She started to stand up. "But it's a bit of a downer, going in there without a date or anything. Anyway I'll see you around." Ophelia picked up her bag.

"What about your History of Magic Essay?" Lily asked.

"I'll figure it out." Ophelia called over her shoulder. There, she had done her good deed for the day. She was sure it was going to work. All Lily needed was that little push to realize that, despite the cocky attitude and his incredibly ability to be a wanker, she saw something in James Potter. The same thing Ophelia saw in Sirius. A passion and kindness that was greater than any other part of their personality.

The next day she was proven right. Lily walked over to James at breakfast.

"One date." She nodded. "Hogsmeade, I want to try the pumpkin spice tea at Madame Puddifoots." She glanced at Ophelia then back at James. "One chance Potter, screw it up and we're done." She nodded curtly and walked back over to her friends, leaving the boys staring after her in shock.

"What did you do?" Sirius asked his girlfriend.

"Magic." She answered. "And I might have just put her in a situation where she had to defend James and realize that she didn't actually hate him as much as she wanted to. Psychology is funny like that." She shrugged.

"Don't mess it up prongs." Sirius smiled at his best friend, "I guess dreams do come true sometimes." He leaned down and kissed Ophelia's head. "So does this make you his fairy god mother?"

"No." Ophelia shook her head and detangled herself from Sirius's arms; she had to get back down to the dungeons to grab her stuff before classes. She'd already been late two or three times this year. She knew if she was late, even a little bit, again, Slughorn would force her to test out the first years' next batch of potions. He was twisted like that.

She grabbed her bag from her dorm and headed down the stairs, she didn't see him until he was almost on her.

"What the hell?" she jumped back to avoid running into Severus Snape.

"You stupid little blood traitor." He snarled.

"You're a half blood, Severus, and in my way." She glanced around before realizing she was out of body guards here. Her brothers were gone and the Marauders couldn't get into this common room. She bit her lip and tried to step around him, but he moved.

"I know you were the one who convinced Lily to go out with that… Potter."

"Yes? And?" She asked.

"James Potter and his friends are dangerous. You honestly think their monthly trysts-"

"Their what?" She quirked an eyebrow and Severus realized she didn't know.

"They haven't told you?" he asked. She shook her head.

"Told me what?" She tucked her hair behind her ear. She didn't honestly believe anything that was coming out of Snape's mouth. He was jealous of James and mad that Lily wasn't' his friend anymore.

"Your boyfriend is an animagus, and so are his friends. Except Remus of course."

"of course?" She asked. He smirked, that was what he wanted her to say.

"Remus is a werewolf." He kept his voice low; he knew that Dumbledore would have his head if the old man knew Severus had told anyone. She rolled her eyes.

"You're not funny Severus. There is no way Remus is a werewolf."

"You're lucky you're pretty because you're obviously not that smart." Severus noted. "You haven't noticed that he gets sick around the full moon? He turns pale and sickly. Black and Potter get more excited around the full moon because it means they get to go out and run around with their werewolf buddy." She stared at him a moment.

"That's not true." She backed away from him, going around the couch. "You're out of your mind." She hurried out of the common room and back to the great hall.

"The boys went on ahead." Sirius was standing alone. "Can I walk you to class?" he asked.

"Of course." She forced a smile and walked with him. She wanted to ask, but this didn't seem like the best time to do that. Even she knew that talking about someone's possible lycanthropy in the hall was a bad idea, especially in this school at this time. It was bad enough people were freaking out over possible death eaters. It would be ten times worse with a werewolf scare thrown in.

She managed to keep her mouth shut, it seemed like every time they were supposed to be alone, someone would come up and ruin it. First it was James, freaking out about his upcoming date with Lily, or it was Peter… he just always managed to get in the way. But there was just always someone around. Finally though, it was Hogsmeade weekend, and she knew they would get alone time today. Even If she had to threaten anyone that came near them, they were going to get some alone time.

They walked down to the town with the other three, and then James ran off to meet with Lily. Ophelia took Sirius's arm.

"See you two later." She chirped at Peter and Remus, leading Sirius away.

"Alright, where do you want to go?" Sirius asked his girlfriend, his arm moving around her waist. She thought about it.

"Let's just walk." She nodded, that was their best chance of staying alone. If they went to the Three Broomsticks, someone would come up to their table. It was a curse of two well-known people dating. Well… well known around Hogwarts. Everyone wanted to come say hi to them and while normally it wasn't that annoying, there were times where she just wanted to be left alone.

"We can do that." Sirius smiled and kissed her, leading her down the street. She waited until they were a little ways away before looking at him.

"So have you noticed that Remus looks a bit… ill?" She asked. He looked thoughtful.

"Not really, but he didn't sleep much last night. He was up studying for those exams. They're not till the end of the year but hell if he'll listen to us." It wasn't a total lie, Moony had been up late, studying. She frowned.

"Yeah but it's not like this is the first time." She said. "Every month he looks like that." She looked at him.

"Well he stays up too late. We try to tell him." He didn't look down at her. Finally they paused for a break. Sirius reached in his pocket, pulling out cigarettes, he pulled out one and lit it. He had started smoking before he moved out of his parent's house, because his father hated it. Now it wasn't something he did often, just once in a blue moon to remind himself that he was independent and could smoke a cigarette if he wanted to.

Ophelia sat down on a rock and looked at him.

"Is Remus a werewolf?" She asked. He choked on the smoke, pounding his chest until he stopped coughing.

"What?" he asked

"Is Remus a werewolf?" She repeated the question, staring at him.

"Maybe." He answered. She rolled her eyes and got up. "Ophelia… it's not my secret to tell."

"Alright, how about this one, are you an animagus?" She asked.

"Snape told you didn't he? Blood Sniv-"

"He shouldn't have had to tell me Sirius! You should have been the one to tell me… what do you turn into?"

"A dog… a black dog." Her eyes widened as she remembered.

"You were that dog, the one I talked to two years ago."

"Yeah…"

"You've been lying to me for two years?"

"I wasn't lying."

"Not telling me is the same thing as lying, Sirius."

"You mean like you not telling me about the two weeks you spent with Alistair in Spain?" Ophelia's mum had tricked her into going to Spain over the summer with the Cassadines, then refused to let her come back home early

"There is a huge difference between me not telling you about being forced to spend time with someone, and you not telling me you can turn into a bloody dog." She snapped, getting up. He sighed and grabbed her hand.

"Ophelia, I'm sorry okay. Too many people already know about Moony and what he is. We didn't want to risk anyone else finding out." She sat back down with a sigh.

"How does Severus know?" She asked. He bit his lip.

"You're going to be mad." He admitted before launching into the tale. At the end of it she was livid.

"Are you seriously that stupid? That you would try to get a classmate murdered? Less than two months after we lost Beatrice?" She asked. He hung his head.

"It wasn't my best moment, but he was fine and we stopped picking on him after that. Look Ophelia, I know it was stupid, and I'm sorry that I did it but it was two years ago and everyone else has already moved on." She glared at him, running a hand through her hair.

"No more lies." She demanded. He nodded.

"No more lies."

* * *

Woot, that was chapter twenty one. I should work on chapter twenty two... or I can go read The Mark of Athena... hmm...

anyway, Reviews are awesome. You all rock

Issy


	22. Double Date

**Chapter Twenty-Two  
Double Date**

"What would you think of the idea of a double date with Lily and I?" James asked Sirius and Ophelia the day after his first date with the Gryffindor girl.

"Poorly." Ophelia responded. Sirius chuckled and shrugged.

"The lady has spoken." James stared at the two of them.

"You two act like idiots when you're together. Shouldn't you wait a little longer before you expose her to both of your overwhelming and stifling personalities?" The two boys turned their attention to her.

"What are you talking about?" Sirius asked.

"We're better together." James nodded. Ophelia shook her head and got up.

"If you can get Lily to agree, then I'll do it, but if it goes wrong, I get to say I told you so." She walked out, leaving the best friends alone.

"She's crazy." James insisted. "We aren't bad."

"Not at all." Sirius grinned.

"Okay, maybe a little."

"We are pretty awful." The two boys laughed and headed off to the dorm to figure out their double date.

* * *

"I already regret this." Ophelia shook her head. She was waiting with Lily Evans. Lily looked confused, unsure about how this date was going to work. It wasn't a Hogsmeade weekend. They'd just be hanging out at the castle. Ophelia was used to it at this point, but she was going to let Lily be surprised.

"So what are we going to be doing on our double date?" Lily asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Ophelia said honestly. Sirius had been very secretive about all this. He didn't want her to know anything in advanced. Lily looked over at her. The two of them had been class mates since first year, of course, but they never really interacted. Lily had her friends, Ophelia had the Marauders, they just never really needed to. Lily didn't dislike the girl, mostly because Ophelia never gave her that look the other Slytherin girls gave her. The look like they thought she was dirty and gross because her parents were muggles.

"So, why'd you agree to this?" Lily asked.

"Because James really likes you and I don't think he'd ever forgive me if I denied him the chance to go on a date with you." Ophelia answered, picking at her nail polish. Lily thought about that as the boys walked over with grins.

"Ready to go?" Sirius asked, Ophelia looked up and nodded.

"Yep, let's go." She headed for the stairs. Hump back witch. She knew the drill. Lily followed, getting more confused as they went. She had never really been back here by this witch statue. She'd never had a reason to be. So when the passageway opened, her eyes widened.

"What?"

"We found it in our third year." Sirius explained. It had been one of the best discoveries they had mae that year.

"they obviously had too much time on their hands." Ophelia nodded, following Sirius through the passage way.

"Where does it lead?" Lily asked. No one said anything, but she got her answer as they came out into Honeyduke's basement.

"Welcome to our world." James grinned. He loved the curious glint in her eyes.

"It's a terrifying world." Ophelia muttered. They snuck out of the basement, one by one, to avoid being caught. The owners probably wouldn't be thrilled with the idea of four teenagers loitering in their basement

"How did you find it?" Lily asked one they were safely out of the candy store and away from the suspicious stares of the owners, who were pretty sure they hadn't seen them walking in.

"We were hiding from some seventh year we had pranked. It just… kind of opened, so we followed it and found ourselves in Honeydukes. It was a really great day." Sirius grinned at James.

"I wish I could say I was surprised but…" Ophelia leaned into Sirius as they walked towards the restaurant, the only one that didn't seem to notice the teens should have been in school.

"It's not the best food, but it's better than nothing." Sirius reasoned. They got a table and took their seats, then the awkward silence fell over them.

"so, Lily, will your family be coming to graduation?" Ophelia asked.

"My parents will, but my sister refuses to go. She hates the wizarding world." Ophelia looked confused by that.

"Oh, well that's strange."

"If wizards can hate muggles, then muggles should be allowed to hate wizards." Lily said defensively. Despite how she acted, and that pratt she was dating, Petunia was still her sister and Lily wasn't about to let anyone say anything bad about her.

"Well I don't think either way is right, we shouldn't hate each other. But it is hate driven by two very different forces, isn't it?" Ophelia shook her hair back.

"How do you meant?" Lily asked.

"Well, wizards, some wizards, hating muggles is brought on by superiority complexes, they see muggles as below them, primitive. Muggles, on the other hand, hating wizards, is born of fear of the unknown. We can make things happen without explanation. It frightens them." She explained her thoughts. Lily looked thoughtful. "But both types of hate have led to wars." She finished, brightening as the waiter came to take the drink orders. The other three stared at her.

"My girl has brains." Sirius smiled and Ophelia rolled her eyes.

"I've been looking into it because of…" She trailed off, she didn't like to talk about her oldest brother. She was hoping her parents were planning on doing something about him but so far it didn't look like that was going to be happening anytime soon. So she just had to sit back and wait for him to get caught doing something heinous enough to get her parents into action. She glanced guiltily at Lily. Even though Ophelia didn't hate muggles or muggleborns, she felt bad that she had that kind of prejudice in her family.

The waiter brought their drinks to them and Ophelia took a long drink of her wine, draining half the glass. "Leave the bottle." She said to the waiter, who frowned, but did as he was told. Sirius stared at her a moment but shrugged it off, taking a drink of his own glass of wine.

Dinner went by pretty quietly. They talked about upcoming tests and the exams at the end of the year. None of them were really solid on what they wanted to do when they got out of school.

"My mum keeps telling me I should work at the ministry, like my dad. But honestly I think I would rather cut off my own head with a rusty blade." James said as he twirled his pasta around his fork. "He seems to really hate his job, so why would I want to do the same thing? I'm thinking about becoming and Auror. That seems like a lot more fun. I would be doing something to help with the Voldemort problem."

"The Voldemort problem is a little bit bigger than something a new recruit would be able to handle, James." Ophelia said, eating her chicken.

"I know that, but I could at least do something to help. Better than sitting around adding up figures and watching people die all around me."

"What about you Sirius? Do you have any ideas?" Lily interrupted. He shrugged.

"Maybe the same thing. Or I might just go into fixing up old muggle motorcycles." He shot a grin at Ophelia.

"Because the one you're working on now is going so well?" She asked. His motorcycle experiments had nearly blown up recently. He had been informed by the owner of the flat building that he had to stop, so he was going to be moving, but he wanted to move anyway, he wanted to get a place with his girlfriend, and Ophelia openly stated she hated the building where he lived. He planned on the two of them getting a flat together after graduation, and when he mentioned it to her, she hadn't disagreed.

It was truly romance at its finest.

After they finished diner, the boys paid the bill and they headed out.

"so I take it we won't be going to play poker again." Ophelia grinned. Sirius had refused to let her go back into the Hogs Head after that first time. He really didn't' want to risk have to run out again.

"No." Sirius shook his head and wrapped an arm around her.

"We could go to the Shack." James suggested.

"No." The other three said in unison. Ophelia had no plans to go back, even though she knew the werewolf was Remus. She had tried not to act weird around him, but her family had this thing with werewolves. It wasn't totally clear to any of them what the problem was, but it went back generations. Before her father, before her grandfather, before even her great grandfather. It wasn't something anyone really talked about. Sirius knew how Ophelia felt about the shack, and Lily, of course, had no idea about Remus or what was wrong with him, she just didn't like the idea of going into the shack. Normally she wasn't one to believe rumors and ghost stories but this one just seemed so real, especially since she'd heard the shrieking coming from the shack before. It was freaky and she did not care to know what it was that was making that sound.

After a few more minutes of debating on what to do, they agreed on a small arcade that had just opened up. It was owned by a muggleborn, who thought wizards would love the games, and he was right, it was a hot spot when the students were in town that one weekend a month, and when he didn't have those, he usually had the young children around the town that came to play games. He was pleasantly surprised to see the four of them walk in.

"Should you four be at school?" he asked, he recognized them, he had been in school with them, a couple years older.

"Nope." Sirius answered.

"We've been kicked out." James added.

"and we dragged these two with us,"

"Not that it was much of a fight."

"Pretty girls can't say no to bad boys" Sirius grinned.

"We'd be more than happy to prove you wrong." Lily interrupted the banter. James and Sirius just grinned.

"Honestly, we're the dumb ones, we keep coming back." Ophelia pulled her coin purse out of her bag and checked how much she had. "I'm going to go play." She walked off and Sirius hurried after her, grabbing her around the waist. He kissed her shoulder and followed her to the skee-ball game, it was her favorite. James and Lily went off to play something else. The arcade was pretty empty, mostly because it was getting late and most kids were home by this time, but there were still a few 'older' kids, older meaning just a little too young for Hogwarts. Sirius stole the ball from Ophelia and rolled it up the felt covered slide and it hopped up into the thirty point circle. She wrinkled her nose.

"I can do better." She informed him, picking up a ball, she got it in the middle, hundred point circle. "Ha!" She cheered. That was honestly the firsttime she'd ever done that before. Usually she did pretty bad at the game. She didn't have a lot of hand eye coordination, especially when it came to sports. She was better at standing on the sidelines and looking pretty. Of course if anyone said that to her face, she'd have beat them.

Finally after about an hour, they realized they had to go home. They trudged back to Honeydukes, snuck into the basement and went back down the passageway to the school.

"So, did I pass the second date?" James asked Lily as they walked through the dark tunnel.

"Yeah, I guess you did." She said, trying to stop the smile as it spread across her face.

* * *

James and Lily is happening!

Does anyone know what James, Lily and Sirius actualy did for a living when they got out of Hogwarts... I'll have to look that up. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Reviews are awesome and so are you

Issy


	23. Tea Time

**Chapter Twenty-Three  
Tea Time**

Christmas break was the best time of the year. Ophelia loved getting the time away from school. The only problem that came with school breaks, was that she had to spend time with her mother. Now that Adelaide didn't have her sons, she had decided to heap the attention onto her daughter. When she was young, Ophelia would have loved it. But now that she was seventeen, and all her mother could talk about was marriage, namely, Ophelia's lack thereof, she just wanted away from her.

Though her mother did talk about one other thing, the coming out ball. Normally it was only for sixteen year olds but, much to the chagrin of the other girls, they put it off for a year, deciding it was better to do it when they turned seventeen, mostly because when the girls snuck off to the gardens with boys, it was a little less embarrassing, they were adults, they could do as the please and totally shoulder the blame, instead of making their parents look bad.

"I think you would look lovely in a white dress. Did you hear that Melanie Crabbe is talking about a red dress, ha, I always knew that one was out of her mind." Adelaide laughed as she took a drink of her cocktail. Ophelia tipped her head back, downing the rest of hers. She found the best way to deal with her mother was to drink, a lot. Sirius had expressed a concern for this but Ophelia didn't see anything wrong with it. After all it was perfectly normal for a mother and daughter to be drinking at eleven in the morning… right?

"Are you even listening to me?" Adelaide snapped at her daughter.

"Of course I am, Melanie, red dress, harlot." She watched the glass refill itself and she relaxed a little bit. She did think the glasses were amazing. She glanced over at her mother as she went on.

"Oh, before I forget, Ophelia dear, we're going to tea this afternoon."

"With?"

"Some friends." Ophelia stared at her mom suspiciously, but shrugged it off, she knew she wasn't going to enjoy herself regardless of who it was, so she was just going to go and pretend like she honestly cared about any of them. She'd much rather be with Sirius and the others today, but the boys put her and Lily off, claiming they had serious work to do. Of course that usually meant something very bad that was going to get them in a lot of trouble.

"Alright."

"Wear that new dress I got you." Adelaide sat back. Ophelia had come home to find a collection of new clothes on her bed, most of them were hideous and she never planned on wearing them, but she knew what dress her mum was talking about. It was passable.

"Fine." She shrugged.

"And how are things going with you and that… boy." She refused to say Sirius's name ever since she walked in on the two of them snogging in her room. And it only got worse from there. At this point Adelaide liked Sirius about as much as she liked frown lines and the sagging skin of her neck.

"Great." Ophelia answered, she knew her mum was hoping for another break up. "We are meeting up tomorrow." She crossed her legs. They were also going to meet up on Christmas to exchange gifts. She was excited for that. She had gotten him a great gift and she was sure he was going to love it. Now that they could apperate, it was a lot easier to meet up.

"Oh." Adelaide looked like she had a bad taste in her mouth, but Ophelia didn't bite, she just smiled and took a sip of her drink. Yeah, these glasses were perfect.

* * *

That afternoon, her mother had forced her to go change, and she made her do her hair and makeup. Ophelia had an idea of what was going on, but she wasn't going to say it, she was going to give her mother the benefit of the doubt, but she quickly realized that was useless, because her mother would never change. That became apparent as soon as she walked into the parlor.

"Hello Alistair." She sighed.

"Ophelia." He nodded a hello at her. He knew she didn't like him, not in a romantic way, and to be frank, he was fine with it. He wasn't that romantically interested in her. She was good looking but he could think of other girls he'd rather be with, Melanie Crabbe for example, but he didn't get a way in the matter.

"We're still waiting for a couple other guests." Alistair's mum, Annabeth commented, Adelaide did not look happy about that, but they knew what gam she was playing. She was showing Adelaide ad Ophelia that Alistair was a catch, and that she couldn't wait around forever to decide what she wanted because he could get himself a fiancée in no time. But they all knew that Annabeth would prefer he be with Ophelia. Even with the scandal of being with Sirius Black, she was sought after, mostly because of her name, and because her family was very good at producing boys.

And that was an important trait to the purebloods, right under having pure blood and above being a good person.

Ophelia crossed her legs and toyed with a loose string on her dress. She'd worn what her mother told her to, but she didn't look happy at all about it, Ophelia knew he mother was never going to give up on the idea of her daughter marrying Alistair Cassadine, even if she were to marry Sirius, have a family with him, her mother would still be trying to convince her to leave that all behind so she could marry a perfect pureblood. It was maddening, but all very predictable.

"So Alistair," Adelaide turned her attention to the young man. "I hear you've already started doing work for you father?"

"Yes, He sends me the paperwork via owl. Even though I haven't even gone to law school yet he says I have the best legal mind he's seen in a long time." The Cassadines were a family of Lawyers. Something her family was probably going to need more of in the near future if her brother kept going the way he was.

"Well that's impressive. Imagine how well you'll do when you're out of school."

"Yes, I'm looking forward to that." Alistair glanced at Ophelia, who was still toying with the string. Her mother followed his gaze and frowned, reaching over and pulling her daughter's hands away. Ophelia glanced up and gave Alistair a polite smile.

"Sorry, I was up late last night." She had been talking with Sirius through the fireplace. Her mum had tried to have that fixed so she couldn't go anywhere through her fireplace, but she had very little idea of how the flooing and calling systems worked and only succeeded in getting her a longer distance availability on her fireplace

"Studying for NEWTs?" he asked with a knowing smile.

"and why would she need to do that?" Annabeth walked into the room with Melanie Crabbe and her mother right behind her. "After all, Ophelia isn't going to need to work."

"She might if she stays with Sirius." Melanie smirked. Ophelia quirked an eyebrow at Melanie, the two of them had never really gotten along. Mostly because they were both pretty, wealthy girls that were the same age and thus 'competing' for the same guys. Of course at this point, Ophelia wasn't competing for anything. They just didn't like each other now

"Melanie, I heard you were looking into red dresses for the coming out ball." Ophelia said coolly. "I suppose just getting the letter on your chest wasn't enough." There was a very well circulated rumor that Melanie had been caught snogging with Ezekiel Goyle, who was married and had two kids. Ophelia knew it was more than just a rumor; she'd been the one to catch them. Melanie turned pink and took a seat. Helen Crabbe glared at Ophelia as she sat down.

"I wasn't aware we were going to have other company." Helen commented.

"Well we didn't want to be rude and turn one of you down." Annabeth smiled sweetly as she took her own seat. She loved this, watching girls fight over her son. Of course she knew it was more Helen and Adelaide that were fighting. But she didn't care.

"Ophelia, that's a lovely dress, a bit short don't you think?" Melanie asked.

"Yes, well we can't all be short legged, can we Mel?" Ophelia wasn't interested in fighting for Alistair's love. But she wasn't going to sit there and take whatever insults spewed out of Melanie's mouth. Melanie glared at her and Alistair tried to hide a smile. Adelaide didn't even try to pretend like she wasn't proud of her daughter. It was the first time in a long time that she hadn't felt like sweeping the fact that she even had a daughter under the rug.

"So Ophelia, do you have any idea of what you want to do when you get out of Hogwarts? I don't imagine you'll be able to stay home if you were to stay with Sirius Black. After being disowned-"

"Blasted off his family tree." Ophelia corrected. "I was there as Walburga did it, very dramatic. She served tea afterwards. I assume she must have been exhausted from joy." She nodded. "But no, Sirius doesn't have to worry about money, however I would like to get some sort of job after I graduate, broaden my horizons so one day I can talk about more than alcohol and the latest gossip." She picked up the cup of tea that appeared on the table next to her.

"Very ambitious." Alistair piped up. He didn't really think he'd be talking much today. When around women, it was usually all about the women, especially ones as outspoken as Adelaide Vander Wende, Helen Crabbe and Annabeth Cassadine.

"Annabeth, how is Kane?" Adelaide asked, referring to Annabeth's older son, one of Stanford's good friends. "He missed the party for Michael." Michael was Stanford and Juliet's second son. He had been born in July and the family had thrown a party, of course.

"Yes well he was in Egypt at the time. You know Kane and his love for archeology." Annabeth explained. Adelaide nodded. "I'm sure he's been to see them since. He loves his godson." Kane had been named as Nigel's god father. Nikolas was Michael's.

"And congratulations are in order." Adelaide went on. "I'm going to be a grandmother… again."

"Congratulations Ophelia." Melanie smiled. "I thought you looked a little bigger."

"I'm sorry what?" Ophelia looked over at Melanie. "Did you say something?" Melanie scowled at her.

"Stanford and Juliet are expecting another child." Adelaide jumped in. "Juliet is hoping for a little girl, but we know the Vander Wendes aren't very talented at producing those. Of the last ten Vander Wende babies, only two of them have been female." She shot a glance at Helen and Melanie. Melanie was one of four sisters.

"Rebel from the womb, I was." Ophelia took another drink, ignoring the glare her mother was giving her. She turned her attention back to Alistair. "Did you read the paper this morning?"

"Two more muggleborns murdered." He nodded. "Horrifying."

"It honestly feels like the ministry isn't actually trying to do anything to stop it. They just keep reporting that it's happening without any sort of insight into how they're going to change anything."

"It's not an easy task, they can't put aurors in the home of every muggleborn to protect them."

"But we know who's doing it, thy leave a flying calling card, shouldn't that be proof enough to arrest the group?"

"Enough." Adelaide interrupted the back and forth chat. "Really Ophelia, it isn't proper to speak of such things at tea." She shook her head.

"Right, tales of genocide are much better suited for dinner." Ophelia rolled her eyes. Alistair chuckled, but tried to disguise it as clearing his throat when his mum gave him a disapproving look.

"So, Melanie, tell me more about your coming out dress." Adelaide ignored her daughter's comment. Ophelia shook her head, downing her tea and tuning out the boring conversation about fabrics and if scarlet red or wine red would be more appropriate, because the answer was neither.

* * *

Hey guys. I wanted to say thanks for all the reviews I've gotten, they really do make my day brighter. Especially days like yesterday. It was... yeah. Anyway, a little less than Twenty chapters to go!

Oh and I put up a link to the cover for the third story in the Vander Wende Chronicles. I'm going to put the second one up when I get home... because that's where it's saved.

I do most of my writing at school...

Anyway, Reviews are awesome

Issy


	24. Planning for the Future

**Chapter Twenty-four  
Planning for the Future**

"So you pretty much spent your entire break being catty?" Lily asked as they walked down the hall.

"Not by choice, trust me, I would have rather been with you guys." Ophelia shook her head. She had begged her mom to let her stay home from the balls, but no, she had been forced to go to every one of them, where her mother proceeded to try and push her off onto Alistair Cassadine. She had wanted to ask Sirius to go with her, but he was pretty much banned from all pure blood activities. And besides, he hadn't wanted to go. She knew he'd have done it if she really begged, but she didn't want to make him go.

"You could have just told her no." Sirius muttered. "You're seventeen, they can't actually tell you what to do anymore." He was getting annoyed at her inability to tell her parents no, even if they were forcing her to do things she just didn't want to do. She was always doing everything they wanted just to keep from getting in fights with them. Of course he assumed it had to do with the family money, it didn't occur to him that family actually did matter to Ophelia.

"Sirius, we've been through this." Ophelia rolled her eyes. She knew he was peeved that she'd spent more time with Alistair than with him.

"Whatever." He glared at a group of fifth years that were staring at them. Ophelia paused so she could walk beside him. She wrapped an arm around his waist.

"Cheer up, we get to spend an hour or so today being asked the same question we've been getting all year." Today was their seventh year review. They were going to talk to McGonagall about their plans for life after their graduation. Some of them took minutes, mostly the girls who went in and said they were going to be housewives, and the guys that said they were going to take over the family business. But anyone else usually got about half an hour to an hour to talk about what they wanted to do, and the options and they got resources to try and make their goal happen, names of people to call and things like that.

"Yeah, looking forward to that." Sirius shook his head. He had no idea what he wanted to do. None of them did honestly. Well Remus had a general idea, but he was so sure he'd never be able to get any kind of job. He was obligated to let them know about his monthly problem and most employers were wary of hiring someone who turned into a giant man eating canine.

"Yeah well maybe this will help us to figure it out." Ophelia reasoned. "I mean, we know what we like to do." But of course shopping and snogging didn't really leave her a lot of options as far as employment went. Not unless she convinced someone to sponsor her, give her money for every hour she spent snogging Sirius. Though it was a nice idea.

"I don't' want to talk about it anymore." Sirius declared, he jumped up onto the little wall that separated the walkway from the grass. "I want to enjoy our last few months as students. We have to do something big, something epic!"

"Last time you tried to do something epic, Peter was in the hospital wing for two weeks." Lily reminded him. They had planned on a huge fireworks display to celebrate the end of last school year and Peter had mucked it up by lighting the wrong wick, it exploded in the wrong direction and set the boy's robes on fire.

"Well this time we'll keep Wormtail away from anything flammable." Sirius shrugged as Peter blushed.

"Sirius is right, I want to make sure we are forever remembered around this school. I want my children to know about the Marauders and be able to proudly say 'that was my dad'."

"Oh trust me James, I really don't' think any children of yours would proudly point you out as their father." Ophelia shook her head. James stuck his tongue out at her and she grinned, Sirius jumped down from the wall and picked his girlfriend up, bridal style.

"Ophelia if you're not going to be nice I'll have to ask you to leave." He informed her

"If she leaves, I'm leaving." Lily informed him. "I can't take on these four alone again, not after Holiday break."

"It wasn't that bad." James insisted. He was thrilled he got to spend most of his holiday break with Lily. The two of them were still dating, still in love and life couldn't be any better in his humble opinion. Especially the nights they got to spend alone, cuddling by the fire.

"You lot got drunk and tried to convince Remus to fly off the roof like a reindeer." Lily shook her head.

"And I missed that? Uugh." Ophelia pouted. "So did he do it?"

"Neither of my legs are broken, obviously I didn't. I do have a little more sense than these two, even after drinking." Remus looked at the girl in his friend's arms.

"Lame, you should have tried it." Ophelia said.

"Do you all just want me to be in pain?" He asked, quirking an eyebrow

"No, I just want to see if buzz kills can fly." Ophelia answered. He rolled his eyes at her.

"You're funny." He said. She grinned and Sirius put her down. "we're going to be late for potions if we don't hurry." Remus warned. He knew generally they didn't care, but they often walked a little faster, because they knew he didn't' want to be late, and neither did Lily. She did actually care about her grades, unlike James and Sirius, who didn't try and got good grades, or Ophelia and Peter, who didn't try and got mediocre grades.

"We can't be late for potions!" Sirius cried out, horrified, He grabbed Ophelia and Remus's hands, running, pulling them along, and James grabbed Lily and Peter, running off after them, the six of them nearly knocking Severus Snape over as they ran past.

"Sorry Snivellus." Sirius laughed

McGonagall was coming in to call them out, one at a time, which of course, meant that Transfiguration was cancelled for the day. Not that anyone was really complaining about that.

Instead of going to class, they all just went to hang out in the library. They couldn't hang out in a common room, because Ophelia was a Slytherin, not a Gryffindor like the rest of them. Though no one was really sure how Peter got to be a Gryffindor.

"Okay so what are you going to tell her you want to be?" Lily asked James.

"I'm thinking Auror."

"Dream team." Sirius reached over to high five his friend. "Black and Potter, taking on all the baddies." He grinned. James laughed; they had already had an adventure. Sirius had taken him for a joy ride on his motorcycle and they had gotten into a bit of a scuffle with some police men. It wasn't too big a deal, and now it was something they both could laugh about, since they got out mostly unscathed.

"Exactly, we'll be given our own muggle Telly show."

"That's a scary thought." Ophelia said. Lily nodded in agreement.

"And what about you Lily, what do you want to do?" Ophelia asked, she was fishing for her own ideas. She had no idea what she wanted to do, despite spending about eighty percent of her winter break thinking about it. They didn't have a lot of time left to think about it.

"I'm not sure. Maybe something in the ministry, something that would help stop Voldemort." Lily answered.

"Aurors!" Sirius and James cheered.

It was almost dinner time before Ophelia was called, she was one of the last called. She went in and sat down, looking up at Professor McGonagall.

"Miss Vander Wende." The woman looked over the file that summarized Ophelia's years at Hogwarts. "So, do you have any idea of what you might want to do when you get out of school?"

"Not really. I mean, I'm sure you probably think I want to be a housewife, like the rest of my dorm-"

"No actually, I didn't think that." McGonagall interrupted. "I pay more attention to my students than you might think." Ophelia bit her lip. "Alright, I'm going to tell you the same thing I did your friends." She walked to the door and made sure it was fully closed. "There is a group, an organization, whose focus is the war. They are on the side of the muggleborns." She took a seat. "I cannot try to influence you in any way, Miss Vander Wende, but you, as well as Misters Potter and Black, can afford to not work, and put all your effort into the Order of the Phoenix, and that is something they are in dire need of."

Ophelia looked at her, a little shocked. "I thought you were going to tell me about excellent domestic opportunities." She muttered.

"If you want to discuss other options of course, I have a list of possibilities."

"No." Ophelia shook her head, thinking about her late best friend and knew what she wanted to do. "I want to do anything and everything I can to help stop what's going on in this world. I couldn't' live with myself if I passed up an opportunity to stop anymore senseless murders." She nodded and got up. "I'll get the information from Sirius." She said, picking up her bag. "Thank you Professor, this was incredibly helpful." She headed out of the room, going to hunt down Sirius.

"So she told you about it too?" She jumped; Sirius was waiting for her at the end of the hall.

"She did."

"And you said yes?"

"Of course."

"I brought up the idea of being an auror to her, and I told her why I wanted to do it, because I wanted to fight Voldemort. She told me that I probably wouldn't be doing much of that. I'd be low level and the ministry isn't doing a lot to fight him anyway. This would give me a better chance to make a difference, but there is no pay."

"Well we don't need it. You have your inheritance from your uncle, I have my family's money and when I graduate I will be getting a sizable deposit into my Gringotts account. Maybe after this is over we can look into actual employment but…" she trailed off. "I have to do this." She said with determination. "Who all did she tell about it?"

"James, you and myself. Probably because we can afford it, but Lily, if she stays with James, could do the same. And Moony knows his chances of getting work are slim to none, so he could probably get on board with it, at least he'd be doing something."

"This is crazy." She said, leaning against the wall. "All my life I've insisted I was going to get a job and make something of myself."

"You'll still be making something of yourself."

"But I wouldn't be able to tell anyone, they'd all think I gave in and became a house wife or something." She wrinkled her nose. "But oh well, we have a direction." She grinned and he walked over to her.

"We do." He nodded, kissing her. "And it's the right one."

"Now we just need to graduate, then you escort me to the coming out ball."

"I never agreed to that." Sirius said.

"I know, but you're going to do it. Because my mom has Alistair as a back-up."

"Emotional blackmail."

"Yup." She nodded and kissed him. "You'll have to wear a suit, and my dress is blue, light blue, so you'll have to make sure you match it." She pulled back. "Actually I'll just pick it all out for you. It'll be easier that way."

"Not fair Ophelia."

"Life isn't fair Sirius."

* * *

Two thumbs up for a filler chapter. Okay I looked it up and the general agreement was that Lily, James and Sirius didn't have actual jobs, they just did work for the Order. So that's what I'm going for. And according to what I read, the reasoning was, James and Sirius could afford it, and so could Lily after she married James

so there

anyway, Reviews are wicked awesome.

Issy


	25. NEWTs

**Chapter Twenty-Five  
NEWTs**

"I'm not mentally equipped to handle this." Ophelia groaned as she slid out of her chair and onto the floor of the library. They were all in the library studying for NEWTs which were looming over them. Well actually, Ophelia, Peter, Lily and Remus were studying. Sirius was flipping through a motorcycle magazine and James was playing catch and release with his pilfered snitch.

"Well if you had actually tried paying attention at any point in the pact seven years…" Remus didn't look up from his book as Ophelia's head popped up from under the table to glare at him.

"Screw you Remus." She said, and then sat back down on the floor. She ran her hands through her hair, trying to clear away the migraine that was settling in behind her eyes.

"I don't understand why you're trying so hard, it's not like it's going to effect what we do with our lives." Sirius said to his girlfriend, glancing up from the magazine.

"Because I'd like to make sure I pass." She answered. "And I'd like NEWTs that I can point at and say 'look I'm not as stupid as you all think I am'."

"Except you are."

"I'm going to murder you." Ophelia informed Remus as she climbed back up into her chair. "I really am." He'd been extra moody, just because of all the studying. He wanted to get the best grades possible, hoping maybe it would make up for the other thing he'd be forced to put on his application.

"Alright, come on" Sirius got up and walked over, sitting on Ophelia's lap. "If it gets us out of the library any faster, I will help you study." He kissed her head and leaned in close to talk to her without bugging the others. He did it because of the glare he'd seen Remus shoot him when he opened his mouth to speak, apparently not everyone wanted his sage words of wisdom when it came to studying.

"Your fat arse is squishing me." Ophelia informed him after about half an hour. He switched places with her, so she was on his lap, and they were back to they're studying. Peter was listening in, desperate for his own little tips and tricks. He was writing it all down as fast as he could, nearly knocking his inkwell over in his hurry to get it all down.

"Careful."Remus snapped at Peter, steadying the inkwell.

"Full moon already?" Sirius asked Remus's head snapped up. He didn't say anything, just gathered his stuff and walked out. Ophelia rolled her eyes.

"You're an idiot." She informed him. "You know why he's upset right now." She looked at him.

"Yeah well everyone else is stressed too and no one needs him snapping at everyone." Sirius answered. He was nervous for the NEWTs too. He wanted to do well on them, great. He needed to prove to himself that he was good at this, he wasn't useless like his parents always tried to make him believe. He usually didn't let them get to him, but once in a while, that seed of doubt crawled it's way into his brain and burrowed down until he managed to do something to prove to himself that they were wrong.

Usually it involved Ophelia, because he couldn't have gotten a girl like her if he was a loser, right?

* * *

Finally it was time for NEWTs. It was set up like the OWLs, with everyone sitting in desks, writing as fast as their hands would allow, the only sound coming in the form of a cry of pain as someone's hand cramped up. Ophelia pulled her hair back off her neck and leaned back over her paper, her attention fully on what she was doing, for a moment anyway. Then she noticed the stain on the back of Snape's robes, probably the result of some prank the Marauders had played on them. She kept looking up at it. It was shaped like a cow. Like a cow out grazing on the pasture. She pulled herself out of her head and went back to work. She had to concentrate.

It was difficult, and she could practically feel the burning heat coming off Remus's paper as he scratched away, even though he was tables away from her. Everyone was seated in alphabetical order, just to avoid talking and distractions. That left their groups scattered, the only ones anywhere near each other were Pettigrew and Potter, Opheila, as a Vander Wende, was of course in the back, closer to Vaisley and Zabini than anyone.

She glanced back up at the stain, she had named it Helga at this point, Helga had been forgotten out in the field when the farmer herded all the other cows into the barn. She had wandered off and been forgotten, but of course as the farmer put them all back into their pens, he'd realize Helga was missing and he'd go looking for her, tearing away her few moments of freedom-

Her thought was cut short when Severus turned around, feeling the eyes on his back. He glared at her and she looked back down at her paper. She hurried to scribble down a few more answers, getting done right as time was announced. She sighed in relief and sat back, rubbing her thumb into the middle of her palm, trying to massage away the pain

They all managed to get up out of their seats, their legs taking a bit of time to remember how to work as they all got the feeling back in their bums after sitting for so long. Ophelia managed to find Sirius, who was in the hall, biting his thumbnail. He brightened when he saw her.

"You survived!" He wrapped his arms around her. He pecked her lips and let her go.

"Barely, I think I did more concentrating on Snape's back than I did my paper." She sighed and leaned against him.

"Well it's over now; we are done with school for good!" Sirius picked her up and carried her over to the others, whooping and cheering. James joined him in the cheering and after a moment they all let loose, setting off a chain reaction of seventh years shouting and dancing in the halls, celebrating the completion of their Hogwarts education.

* * *

It was odd, they had a party to celebrate the finale of the NEWTs, and there, everyone began to realize it was over. They were no longer separated by houses. They weren't Slytherins and Gryffindors anymore. They had no reason to really hate each other, as they were no longer part of a house rivalry. It led to, easily, the wildest party they'd ever had in their Hogwarts experience.

The only person who didn't seem to be having any fun was Severus.

But he rarely had fun

Lily danced with James, close to where Ophelia and Sirius were dancing. The room was packed full of people, all of them dancing and partying and just having fun.

"This is it, we're no longer students." Lily yelled over the music.

"It's almost like we're real adults." Ophelia nodded.

"Never!"

"Never give in, Never grow up!" Sirius shouted. They laughed and went back to dancing. Towards the end of the night, the six of them stumbled out of the hot, crowded dungeon they were using for the party.

"Okay, question." Ophelia looked at the boys. "Did you four throw the masquerade party in our fifth year? I already know Sirius was the one I danced with."

"We didn't throw it." Sirius shook his head. "I know we got all the credit, but we had nothing to do with it. We just showed up in costume, I tricked you into dancing with me and then we left when the teachers broke it up. Though we were put on clean up duty, turns out the faculty didn't believe that we were innocent."

"So whoever did to it didn't get credit, but they didn't have to clean up, sounds like a deal to me." James nodded.

"Okay, did you really throw Peter into the lake as a sacrifice for the squid?" Lily asked.

"That we did do." Sirius nodded. "But the squid wouldn't take him. Sorry mate, better luck next time." He grinned at Peter, who blushed.

"Oh come on, Peter isn't bad." Ophelia insisted.

"Yeah, out of the four of you he's the nicest." Lily agreed.

"You know, I wonder why we're with the dolts we're with, when we could have Peter." Ophelia looked at Lily, who nodded.

"You're right, I say we give them up and trade in for a better model."

"What do you say Peter, are you man enough for the both of us?" Ophelia asked. Peter went from pink to red and he stuttered.

"I-I um…"

"Alright, maybe next time." Ophelia smiled and ruffled his hair.

"If you left me for Wormtail I would never forgive you." Sirius informed her. "Ever."

"Well now you're just trying to push me into his arms." She grinned. He made a face and she kissed him.

"You're a mean drunk."

"I'm not drunk."

"Maybe you should be." Sirius responded. They spent another thirty minutes or so, asking questions about each other, about things the four of them supposedly did, questions about the girls. The question of Lily and Severus's relationship came up and she told the truth, they had grown up in the same area, they became friends when they were kids, much to her sister's chagrin, and then when they got to school and were sorted into different houses, they grew apart, especially as he grew nasty and angry. And of course, it only got worse when she'd agreed to date James, apparently Snape had spent a good deal of winter break trying to convince her to dump the boy.

James didn't seem thrilled with that, but Lily calmed him down, reminding him that it didn't work, the two of them were still together.

"Okay, I have a question." Sirius asked, turning to look at his girlfriend.

"What?" She asked.

"What is it with you and werewolves?"

"Huh?"

"Everyone says that you were attacked by a wolf when you were a kid. The way you freaked out when we went to the shrieking shack and all that. So what's the truth? What is it with you and werewolves?"

"It's a family thing." She shrugged. "Vander Wendes and werewolves don't get along." Remus frowned at that, he had never had serious problems with anyone in her family, but they, for the most part, didn't know about what he was.

"Why?" Remus asked, he was curious.

"You all never did anything epic." Ophelia changed the subject. "You said you wanted to do something huge and shocking and you didn't." Remus frowned again, he wanted to know what the deal was, but before he could bring it back to that, he was interrupted.

"You're right, we didn't." Sirius looked at James.

"Well I have something in mind." James said thoughtfully, a small smile on his face, happy that this had been brought up without him having to steer it that way himself.

"What's that?" Remus asked, wary." James reached into his pocket and pulled out the little ring box, dropping to one knee in front of Lily, they all froze in shock.

"Lily Evans, will you marry me?" he asked. Lily stared at him a moment then grinned, nodding.

"Yes, yes I will." She nodded faster. He smiled and slipped the ring onto her finger. He stood up and kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck, trying to hold back tears.

"Okay, I was wrong; you did something huge and shocking." Ophelia amended.

* * *

Yay! They're done with school! I actually wrote this instead of watching Hoarders, just to make sure I could get this up tomorrow

If you knew how much I liked Hoarders you know how big a sacrifce this is (I'm kidding of course)

Anyway, this story is no where near done. I still have... seventeen? Chapters to go? Anyway, yeah. I hope you all are enjoying this.

Reviews make my long days bearable

Issy


	26. The Coming Out Ball

What? An author's note before the chapter? Well i wanted to make sure everyone saw this, I have a quick question. I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year (again) and I wanted your opinions on my two story ideas, which one you all think I should do.

1) Sirius Mahr has always been the school freak. The niece of the town witch, Siri has always known she wasn't like everyone else. Then when two new boys roll into town she realizes she didn't even know the half of it. Now she has to use her magc to try and save the mother she didn't know was still alive, and stop the witch Alazar from taking her place as the leader of her coven.

2) The Van der Woods are rich, powerful and well known. They are on the covers of tabloids and fortune five hundred magazines. Socialites fall over themselves to get dates with the men of the family, but no one knows their secret. The thing that keeps them on top. For hundreds of years the Van der Woods have been a Feeder family. In exchage for their blood, they recieve everything their hearts desire, and this has never been a problem, until now, when the daughter of Gavin Van der Wood decides she doesn't want to be food, she wants to live her own life, even though it could mean ruining the system that's kept her family rich for centuries.

**Chapter Twenty-Six  
the Coming Out Ball**

Ophelia had been attending balls since she was fourteen years old. That was they typical age that young men and young women were allowed to start. But she had never been so excited, and so over crowded. She usually had some people to help her with her hair and make-up, but for the coming out ball, she had a large team of people, she was being primped and prodded, her hair being tugged and teased and curled to perfection. She had lost count of how many people were coming at her with make up brushes. When they stood back she was amazed that she didn't look like a doll, instead she looked… almost natural. They had done very little in the way of enhancing.

"Natural beauty should stay that way." The man in charge had declared when she was done, now all that was left was to put on the dress. Her mother had picked it out for her, and while Adelaide Vander Wende had her faults, a lot of them, she did have an eye for fashion. Ophelia slipped into the silk gown, it fell around her perfectly, it did cling quite a bit, but that wasn't a problem, because she was seventeen with a body to kill for. Something she worked harder on than most people thought. She smiled to herself and nodded, she looked perfect.

It was a highly competitive day. She knew that for most girls this was going to set the tone for the rest of their lives. This was where the men officially set their sights on a future wife. Ophelia, of course, didn't have anything to worry about. She was happy with Sirius, she had no interest in anyone else. She looked in the mirror and nodded. The soft blue silk fell around her, when she walked it slipped over her skin showing the outline of her legs. She smiled and headed out of her room, going down to the front hall.

"Ophelia." Her mother breathed as he daughter walked down the stairs. Sirius, who had been waiting in silence turned to look, and the look on his face made it all worth it. He was completely enthralled by her. She walked over with a small smile on her face.

"You were right, the dress is perfect." She said to her mother. Adelaide wore a lovely silver gown, her long hair pulled up. Sirius figured that if Ophelia aged like Adelaide, they wouldn't have a problem, even in her late forties she was a stunning woman, despite her own insecurities. He walked over and took her hand.

"Ready to go?" he asked. She nodded and the family apperated. The two teenagers went to the room where they were to wait to be announced.

"it's simple." Ophelia said. "You get in line, second to last, and they'll announce me, I'll move to the center and when the announce my escort, you come up, take my hand, and we'll walked together down the grand staircase, then we dance, I know you know how to do that. Then we relax, it's just a party from there on out.

"And this is the last one we'll ever have to go to?" He asked hopefully.

"You and I both know that's wrong." She looked at him. She did enjoy going to balls, she liked dressing up, she liked dancing, as long as she could be there with Sirius. She smiled and headed out with the others when the time came. She got in line, right before Arianna Zabini, and looked across to Sirius, trying to suppress a laugh when he stuck his tongue out at her. Finally it was time, one by one they wre announced, from the A's back.

"Miss Ophelia Adelaide Vander Wende," The man announced. She moved into place. "Daughter of Silas and Adelaide Vander Wende. Escorted by Sirius Black." There was some whispering as Sirius walked over, She took his arm and they descended the staircase. They made a striking couple, his dark hair and eyes a stark contrast to her blonde hair and bright blue eyes. They walked down the stairs, all eyes turned to watch them, no one paying any attention to Arianna and her escort, because not only were Ophelia and Sirius nice to look at, they were unconventional.

"We're being stared at." Sirius noted.

"I would think you'd be used to the by now." Ophelia replied, glancing up at him. "People tend to stare at you wherever you go."

" Do they?" he asked.

"They do."

"I wouldn't know." He moved into position, placing a hand on her shoulder blade, under her arm, and the other hand in hers. "When we're together, all I can see is you." He smiled charmingly.

"Loser."

"You love it." He leaned in closer.

"I do love it." She agreed and he kissed her softly. When the music started, he pulled away and started to dance with her, sweeping her around the large dance floor. Ophelia still had no idea where he learned to dance, but he was amazing at it. She wasn't even aware of the eyes watching them as they waltzed together, earning glares from their peers as they sucked up all the attention in the room. The only thing to console them being the fact that Sirius and Ophelia had each other and wouldn't be stealing possible husbands or wives.

* * *

Close to the end of the night, the couple stumbled out of the ball room and out into the gardens, laughing. Ophelia looked out over the garden, everything was in bloom, some of it might have been that way because of magic, but a lot of it was just naturally in bloom this time of the year. And it was all so beautiful, especially with the fairy lights strung up.

"See, I told you it wasn't all bad. Just the stuffy boring conversations and the judgmental glares that we get every time we dare to go near anyone." Ophelia leaned against him, it was a nice warm night out, a gentle breeze wafting through to keep them from getting too warm. She didn't know if it was a weather charm, or if it really was just the perfect night.

"Okay, It isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but that's not to say it's particularly good." He shrugged and then looked down at her.

"So how is James doing with the wedding planning? I know Lily is losing her mind. She asked her sister to be her maid of honor and Petunia turned her down." Ophelia shook her head. She didn't have a sister, but she knew her brothers, except maybe Sebastian, would do anything for her.

"Yeah well, Petunia doesn't particularly like James… or anyone with magical ability." He shrugged.

"So she asked me to do it. I said yes, of course. Which means I get to go shopping for a bridesmaid dress." She grinned.

"So you don't think they're too young?" Sirius asked thoughtfully. He had been thinking about this a lot, and while he didn't think James and Lily were too young, he knew a lot of people did, including her parents. Lily's parents loved James to death; they had just been surprised when their seventeen year old daughter came home with a ring on her finger. However they were relieved when she assured them they were not going to be grandparents just yet.

"No, of course not. I mean, they love each other, and they graduated from school, how is waiting until they're older going to change anything?" He thought about that a moment.

"I don't know. It wouldn't I guess." She looked over at him.

"You do know I don't demand we get married right?" She asked.

"What?"

"This Lily and James thing, it doesn't mean I want you to propose to me and all that right away. Honestly I don't even want to get married yet." He brightened and bit, looking up at her. Her hair had fallen slightly, but it didn't' make it look bad, she just looked like she'd been having so much fun and as so carefree that her half fallen coif wasn't any kind of bother.

"You don't?"

"No." She replied. "I would rather wait. I spent my whole life trying to avoid being 'Mrs so and so', why would I suddenly change my mind just because I could be Mrs. Black? I don't want to get married yet, I'm happy for Lily and James, but that isn't what I want for myself." She leaned in and kissed him. "Someday, sure, but not just yet." She shook her head.

"Have I told you you're the perfect girlfriend?" Sirius asked her. He loved her, he did want to marry her someday, but right now, that much commitment, no he wasn't ready. The idea of it made him want to jump up and run as far away as possible.

"You have, but I like to hear it."

"You're the perfect girlfriend. And while we may not be getting married anytime soon, I may have an idea for something the two of us can do to further our relationship."

"Sirius, I'm not shagging you in the garden."

"That's not what I meant, and at this point it wouldn't further anything, we've already done that, but I mean something else, something actually kind of big."

"No kids."

"Dammit woman, let me finish." Ophelia smiled and looked at him, waiting for him to finish his thoughts on what they could do to further their relationship.

"I'm looking for a new flat." He said. "Move in with me."

"You want me to live in sin with you?"

"Yes, as much sin as humanly possible."

"Well who can say no to that?"

"No one I've ever known." Sirius smiled and kissed her. Tomorrow he would actually start looking for a new flat, one that would allow for room for him to work on his bike.

"Of course you'll have to convince my family to let me do that." She looked at him. "Or at least be ready for the wrath as at least three of my brother swoop down upon you to give you the brotherly lecture about responsibility and to threaten your life if you dare to touch me before we've said our I do's, because brothers are incredibly hypocritical that way."

"Your brothers don't scare me. They never have." Ophelia leaned over with a smile and kissed him.

"I know, and that's one of the many things I love about you.

* * *

Second authors note!

You guys are so awesome. Seriously, when I read my reviews my day just gets brighter. Anyway, part two is almost over. Then comes part three... of course..

Review are amazing day brighteners

Issy


	27. The Wizard, The Witch and The Wardrobe

**Chapter Twenty-Seven  
The Wizard, The Witch and the Wardrobe**

Two weeks after the ball, the friends got a call to meet for the Order of the Phoenix. They went to the meeting place, it wasn't the headquarters because first they had to show that they really did want to join. Of course none of them knew exactly who they were meeting. They never had been told who was in charge of the vigilante group, so they were all visibly surprised when they person that came in to meet them was none other than Albus Dumbledore. They stared up at him a moment.

"Professor?" Lily asked.

"Miss Evans you are no longer my students. You don't have to call me that anymore." He assured them, but they all knew they would continue to call him that because the very idea of calling him 'Dumbledore' to his face was daunting, let along calling him Albus.

"What are you doing here?" James asked.

"Well you six wanted to join the order, did you not?" They nodded. "I started this group, in the hopes of defeating Voldemort, being proactive, instead of sitting back and hoping he'll slip up, as the ministry is doing." They all though about that, they hadn't ever imagined their old as dust headmaster would be the one in charge of this operation.

"Now you do understand you won't be paid for your work here." They all nodded.

"I'm just going to be doing this until I can find work." Remus spoke up. "Then I'll have to cut back on it." He nodded. Of course they all knew how much luck he'd had so far. He'd done so well on his NEWTs and so far it didn't seem like it was doing any good. He couldn't' get anyone to see past the fact that he is a werewolf. They didn't say it though. Because they knew that it would just depress him further to have other people talking about it.

"What exactly would we be doing?" Ophelia asked, crossing her legs.

"Anything it takes. There will be investigating, protection detail for certain, prominent muggleborns, possibly getting into fights with the death eaters if you happen to run into them. All of you did satisfactory with defensive spells. Some of you did better than others with offensive spells." He quirked an eyebrow at Ophelia.

"Melody made me mad." She shrugged. They had made the mistake of pairing her with one of her rivals, and so when they had to duel, Ophelia hadn't held back and she beat the school record, getting Melody down before the whistle had eve sounded, it had been a lot of fun.

"Yes, well, I just want to make sure you all understand the dangers that come with joining us, there is a chance you could be killed, there is a chance you could kill someone. We never use the unforgivable curses, but it comes down to them or us and I'd rather it be them." They all stared at him in shock, they had never heard the seemingly kindly old man talk like this before, but this was war, and war brought out the best, and most terrifying, in people.

"We understand that." Ophelia piped up after a few minutes of silence.

"Good, I wish it wasn't this way, but we need people who can put their all into this and can help us to stop the problem before it gets even worse. Because, despite what people want to believe, this isn't going to just go away, and it will get worse before it gets better, it's just a matter of how much worse." He glanced around. "Mr. Pettigrew? Can we count you among our numbers?" Everyone turned to face Peter and he blushed bright red.

"Um… yeah." He mumbled. Dumbledore stared at him thoughtfully for a moment then stood up.

"Good. We're going to need all six of you. I will contact you with the location of our headquarters later and you call can start." He smiled, the twinkle returning to his bright blue eyes before he turned and walked out of the room. They all took a moment to process what just happened, all of them slumping in their seats as it weighed on them.

"This is big." Lily nodded, toying with her engagement ring.

"Well we knew it was going to be." Ophelia shrugged, of course none of them realized it would be that bad. He just made it sound… heavy. But they were going to do it.

"Right then Wormtail, you back to your normal color yet?" Sirius asked, looking at the boy.

"are you going to call each other by those stupid nick names forever?" Ophelia asked.

"Probably." He nodded. "I don't even remember their real names." He joked. She rolled her eyes.

"So how is the flat hunting going?" Lily asked Ophelia.

"Great, we've found a place and we're moving in this week." She replied. They had found the perfect little place, just big enough for the two of them, and Remus, because they knew he would need a place to stay, and Lily and James were getting married and, more than likely starting a family, and he wouldn't want to intrude on that. Of course Ophelia and Sirius hadn't told Remus that they got a two bedroom just for him, he wouldn't like that, but they knew when he got desperate, he would be more than happy to take the bedroom they offered.

Ophelia wondered where Remus went to change now. It wasn't something she planned on asking him, but she was curious.

Anyway, the flat they found was perfect, it was close to where James and Lily lived. It had two bedrooms, a large open living room, a decent sized kitchen, not that Ophelia knew how to use it, the bedroom were both fairly large. It wouldn't take too much to keep it clean. And the rent wasn't outrageous, which meant they would be able to keep living comfortably for that much longer, since they didn't have paying jobs.

"Well if you need any help moving, just let us know."

"Let her know, I don't plan on doing any helping." James smiled, speaking after Lily. The girl turned and smacked his leg. He just laughed and leaned down to kiss her.

"I wouldn't want you to help anyway James. You and Sirius would just end up charming the boxes to battle in the living room." Ophelia said. The boys looked at her with wide eyes, this hadn't occurred to them, but now they really wanted it to happen.

"No." Ophelia shook her head.

"Oh come on!"

"No."

Three days later, Ophelia and Sirius were moving into their new flat. Of course it was just a matter of waving their ands to banish the boxes from their homes to the new flat, and then a matter of waving them about to get everything put away. But Ophelia wanted to do it, partially, the muggle way, just so she could make sure everything was perfect. They did banish the boxes, because they didn't have any other choice, but once there, she went through the boxes by hand, putting things where they belongs, which resulted in a high pile of trash, mostly Sirius's things.

Then there was the mountain of clothes.

"This is why I wanted a flat with a bigger closet." Ophelia placed her hands on her hips, looking at the clothes piled up on the floor, they were just hers, and it wasn't even all of them that she owned.

"You're going to have to get rid of some of them." Sirius said, the pile almost touched the ceiling.

"Bite your tongue." She snapped. "And I did. I just got rid of my entire spring wardrobe." He turned to look at her.

"This is after you got rid of some?"

"A lot." She corrected.

"Ophelia, you do not need three pairs of the same shoes." He looked at her shoe collection. "And why would you ever need this?" he picked up a pair of pants with a swirling paisley print on them.

"That's what's in fashion Sirius, not all of us can get away with wearing jeans and t-shirts." She gave a disdain look to his own outfit. He rolled his eyes and picked through the pile.

"We don't have room for it."

"I will find a way to make it work." She informed him and turned, walking out of the room and into the living room, plucking a couple of spell books off the shelves. He groaned and followed her.

"Do not do anything to set this place on fire." She shushed him and flipped open the first book, reading through its pages.

Finally she found what she was looking for, in the third book.

"Ha!" She jumped up, grabbing the book and going to the bedroom. She grabbed her wand from the dressing table and lifted it up. He winced, watching her, ready with his own wand, to keep anything too terrible from happening. She recited the spell from the book and watched as the wardrobe shuddered. Then she went to open the doors. It went from a small, shallow wardrobe, to an entire room, dedicated solely to her clothes, it was even better than the set-up she had at her parent's home.

"You frighten me." He informed her. "You had trouble turning a chicken into a teacup, but turning the wardrobe into a store? No problem." He stared at it, as if waiting for it to fall in on itself, but it held perfectly. It had plenty of racks, and a large island in the middle for jewelry, it had a lingerie armoire and a huge wall with cubbies just for shoes,

Not that Sirius actually knew the names of any of those things or what they were used for, to him they were a bit table, a wardrobe inside a wardrobe inside a wardrobe, and cubbies for an unknown purpose, but regardless, it was still a bit much.

"It's not a store, it's just a bigger wardrobe." She chirped, going back putting her clothes away. Sirius shook his head and went to put things away in the kitchen, leaving her to her obsessive organizing tactics. She'd tried explaining the system once, and he'd left with a headache and the idea that maybe his girlfriend wasn't totally all right in the head.

This, of course, didn't help her case. At all.

By ten in the evening they had everything put away exactly as they wanted it, the wardrobe was organized, the kitchen was stocked, and the boxes were all in the rubbish bin, after they'd used the magic to shrink them down to fit in the rubbish bin anyway.

"I think I could sleep for a few days." Sirius yawned as he plopped down onto the bed

"Are you sure?" Ophelia asked, crawling up onto the bed, looking at her boyfriend with a sweet smile.

"Very."

"Too bad." She said slowly. "I was going to suggest we break in our new home." He opened his eyes.

"Break in?"

"You know what I mean." She smiled. He grinned.

"Oh I definitely know what you mean, and I'm never too tired for that." He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her close, kissing her. She laughed and he shut her up with another kiss. It was their first night in their new flat, and he was going to make it a memorable one.

* * *

Okay, Part three here we come! This was the end of part two so expect the drama to come in waves in the upcoming chapters. Because I may or may not stick to canon, you'll have to keep reading and find out.

Anyway, I wanted to, again, say thanks to all my reviewers and to everyone who says I do a good job of keeping them in character... I've played them in Roleplays before. I've played Sirius at least a dozen times.

Reviews rock out loud

Issy


	28. Dinner with the Potters

**Part Three  
The Storm**

**Chapter Twenty-Eight  
Dinner with the Potters**

"He's an infant Sirius, what will he do with a broom?" Ophelia asked her boyfriend as she took the toy from him and put it back.

"I want to buy Harry his first broom." Sirius answered, picking it back up.

"Why?" she shook her head, going to take it from him but he pulled back so she couldn't get it. "It's not like you're known for your skill on a broom."

"I just want to." He informed her.

"Well Harry isn't even a year old." Ophelia placed her hands on her hips, annoyed.

"But he is advanced." Sirius shrugged

"He can barely walk."

"Why are you so against this?"

"It's insanity. You know why? Buy it; we can give it to him, on his birthday." She gave in, rolling her eyes as he did a little victory dance. A little under a year ago, Lily gave birth to a baby boy and his god parents, Sirius and Ophelia, loved to spoil him.

"Lily will kill us both.' Sirius admitted, but he headed for the register with it, Lily got tired of them buying the boy everything they saw that they thought he might like. Ophelia followed him, putting the stuffed snitch she's picked up on the counter. They paid for the toys, both of them looking forward to dinner with the Potters that evening.

"I'll just blame it on you like I always do." Ophelia chirped, smiling to herself. Sirius stuck his tongue out, taking the bag from the toy seller, then the two apperated home.

They didn't live in the same flat they'd started in. They now lived in a slightly bigger one. Originally it was close to Lily and James, but then they had Harry and moved to a bigger home, a real house, not a flat. Ophelia loved the flat; it was everything she wanted in a pre-family home. She walked out of the front hall and went to get a bag to put the snitch in.

"the broom goes in the closet Sirius. He can have it on his birthday." Ophelia walked over, taking it. Sirius pouted, but let her put it away.

"He'll love it." Sirius insisted.

"He will." Ophelia agreed, "but why give it to him when he's too young to play with it?" He could hurt himself."

"Fine." He conceded, and went to the kitchen to get a drink.

"We're going to dinner in half an hour." She reminded him.

"I know dear." He called back. They both quickly got changed. Obviously dinner with the Potters wasn't anything formal, but they knew that if they wore anything that had a loose string or anything like that on it, Harry would find it and pull on it. They apperated to the Potter home and as soon as they popped in, little Harry toddled into the room, the front of his shirt was a mess. He grabbed Sirius's leg and the man picked the baby up.

"Hey there little man." He kissed Harry's head. Harry grinned and reached out for Ophelia, who took the boy

"Harry James Potter!" Lily walked down the stairs and Harry buried his face in Ophelia's neck 'hiding'.

"Uh-oh. Harry, what did you do?" Ophelia asked, looking at him.

"He got into mummy's make up." Lily answered. He hadn't gotten much on his face, but the front of his shirt was a mess of color. She reached out to take the boy, but he clung to Ophelia's shirt.

"Sorry bud, but mummy rules." She pried the boy off of her and handed him over. Lily took him upstairs to clean him up, telling him in a stern voice why he wasn't to go in mummy and daddy's room when they weren't there.

"He's not going to listen, too much like his dad, that one." Sirius said fondly. He wrapped an arm around Ophelia's waist. "James!" He bellowed.

"Office." Came the reply. The two of them headed into the home office, where James kept all of his work for the Order. He looked especially tired.

"What's wrong?" Sirius asked with a frown. James looked back at him.

"Nothing for you to worry about yet." He smiled. "Tonight we are going to eat a fantastic dinner; Lily has been working on it for hours."

"Lily Potter, are you trying to impress us?" Sirius asked as the red head walked into the room with their son, this time in a clean shirt.

"Nope." Lily answered. "I was going to, then I saw that." She nodded at the bag in Ophelia's hand.

"Oh yeah!" Ophelia knelt down. "We got you something." She smiled at Harry. The boy toddled over and reached into the bag, happily pulling out the snitch. It worked, the stuffed wings fluttered and it lifted up, but it didn't move like a real snitch, it floated away fairly slowly, so the boy could catch it. Ophelia smiled up at Lily. "I couldn't resist, it reminded me of Hogwarts, when James took that snitch and was constantly playing with it."

"What ended up happening to that?"

"Slughorn took it." James answered Sirius. Harry walked over and James picked the boy up, placing him on his lap. James was a great dad, and he was totally in love with his son. Ophelia smiled at the pair of them and then looked back to Lily.

"Do you need any help getting things together?" She asked. Lily nodded.

"Yeah that'd be great." She said, turning and heading for the kitchen, leaving the boys alone in the office.

"Are you okay? You look tired." Ophelia said. Lily forced a smile.

"yeah, fine."

"We can reschedule this." Ophelia assured her.

"No, actually tonight is the best night for this. We need to… discuss something with Sirius later." Lily nodded. She didn't notice Ophelia's strange look. "Anyway, it's pretty much done. I just need to get the table set." Ophelia pulled out her wand and with a flick of her wrist, had the silverware flying through the air, landing on the table in perfect placement.

"Thanks." Lily looked over at the table. It always ended up overly elaborate when Ophelia did it. As usually Lily and James made due with one fork, not three lined up by size, they didn't even need spoons but sure enough there were two. Ophelia looked at the table and shrugged.

"Oh well." She put her wand away in time to see Harry toddling quickly out of the office.

"That's never a good sign." Lily shook her head.

"you go take care of him, I'll take care of the food." Ophelia smiled and walked over to the stove, sure enough everything was pretty much done. Lily picked up Harry and took him upstairs, changing him into clean clothes and found out why the boy had run away from the office, by the ink stains over the boys hands and arms.

"You are a destructive little thing aren't' you?" Lily asked her son. Harry giggled and hugged his mother. She smiled softly and kissed his head. "I love you Harry."

"Love mama." Harry replied. Lily picked him up and carried him back down to the kitchen, securing him into his high chair and getting his dinner put on the tray for him. Harry simply opened his mouth and the enchanted fork lifted, feeding him. Meanwhile Lily and Ophelia got the food out on the table and called the boys in to eat. A minute later there was a crash and James and Sirius raced out, laughing,

"It was him." Sirius insisted as he took a seat.

"Was not, it was Sirius's fault."

"Well at least I know where Harry gets it." Lily shook her head, taking a seat. Ophelia sat next to her boyfriend and placed her napkin in her lap, out of habit.

"Ophelia set the table." James noted when he was the surplus of forks.

"I certainly did. I am good for something." She nodded.

"Like leaving extra dishes." James smiled.

"Oh please like your hands have ever touched dishwater." Lily interrupted, starting to eat. The others followed suit. Lily was a pretty good cook, which had surprised them all. They had never thought of lily as a domestic type. But she was great at it. That wasn't to say she'd taken up a life of quietly cleaning and cooking while James was out doing things for the order. No, she kept the house clean, food on the table and still managed to get out there and kick some death eater arse.

Sirius was forever begging her to teach Ophelia to do the same.

Ophelia could kick death eater arse, and she could wave her wand to clean up the flat, but cooking… her one attempt had ended so badly they thought the oven was beyond repair. Now they had a house elf to take care of that, much to Sirius's chagrin, but he wanted to eat.

They finished eating and the Potters suddenly grew quiet.

"Sirius, I was wondering if we could talk to you in private." James said. Sirius frowned, glancing at Ophelia. She nodded, of course they could.

"Yeah sure." Sirius said, getting up.

"Ophelia do you mind…" Lily nodded at Harry.

"Oh sure." Ophelia smiled and stood up. She picked the messy boy up. "You get a bath Little man." She informed him

"Nono." Harry shook his head but didn't fight as she carried him up the stairs. Lily flicked her wand to clean up the table then they went into the office.

Ophelia got Harry into the bath, the little boy giggled and splashed in the water as his Aunt Phe washed him clean, what was left of the ink, and the bits of food that stuck to his face. When that was done and he was all clean, she dried him off, taking him to his room, she dressed him in his pyjamas and put him to bed, kissing his head. Harry hugged his next stuffed toy and fell asleep fairly quickly. Ophelia slipped down the stairs, pausing by the door for a moment. Then she quickly walked away, not wanting to eavesdrop.

"Sirius, this is an important matter." James said tiredly, running his hands through his hair.

"Do you know what you're asking me to do?" Sirius asked, pacing back and forth. "You two can't just…"

"We don't have a choice Sirius, he wants Harry and I will fly to the moon before I'll let him get to our son." Lily said. "We need a secret keeper and you are the best option."

"No I'm not." Sirius argued.

"What?" James's head snapped up.

"They'll be expecting me." Sirius explained. "They will come after me and…" He glanced at the door. He knew Voldemort wouldn't be above using Ophelia to get to him and since Voldemort had access to Ophelia's brother… "What about Wormtail?"

"Peter?" Lily asked.

"Yes, I mean… no one would ever think of him as your secret keeper. He is after all Wormtail." Sirius shook his head. "Make him the secret keeper and I'm sure your secret will be completely safe. " He sat down, sighing. "I don't like this." He said.

"None of us do, but I am not going to risk Harry's life just because we don't want to spend a year or so away from our friends." James shook his head. "We will go into hiding and as soon as all this is over, we'll be free to go back to our lives." He was so sure that was what would happen. Nothing else really was an option.

Sirius nodded. "Call Wormtail, do whatever it is that needs to be done and stay safe." He walked over to the two of them. "Because if anything happens to you three, I will never get over it." James got up and hugged his best friend, his brother.

"We will be." He said. "It won't be long before that noseless bastard goes down."

"Language, James." Lily reprimanded lightly, hugging Sirius.

"Ophelia and I should probably go." Sirius sighed. Lily nodded.

"I'm going to go check on Harry." She slipped out of the room, going to the nursery. Sirius headed down to his girlfriend, the two of them apperating home. Ophelia surprised Sirius by not asking what it was that Lily and James had wanted. And James sent an owl to Peter, inviting him over the next day

This was the best arrangement, at least they thought so

* * *

So… I'm not dead. I just had a case of writers block. I sat down to write this chapter a million times and nothing good would come out. So… sorry if this is crap. I just… needed to get back to this story.

Anyway like I said if it's bad, sorry it's like… a warm up.

I don't know the details of Lily and James going into hiding, I wasn't totally sure like… how old Harry was when it happened or if they were really like, cut off from their friends, I mean Sirius sent them a broom for Harry when he was a year old, but he was a year-ish old when his parents died so… I don't know. If you do, feel free to tell me

I'm going to try and go back to updating regularly. Maybe not every day, because I have a job and it's finals week, but more often than once every other month… promise.


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